Fishing Report 2011

Socialize
With Us

Miracle Mile Guide Fishing Report 2011
Written by Amy LinchNorth Platte River Miracle Mile Fishing Report – 2011
by Grey Reef Anglers Guides12/19/11 Warm Winter & Gift Certificates Available. Grey Reef Anglers & Wingshooting has plenty of great gift certificates available for purchase for this Holiday Season, if your thinking of giving someone a gift what better than a guided fly fishing trip or wingshooting adventure. Call Jason or Judy @307-267-2559.
We are having a real warm start to winter with little to no moisture, after back to back hard winters its kinda nice to enjoy a warm one. Just hope we don’t start slipping into a drought. We are however filling up our 2012 Season dates for fishing so if your planning on fishing with us please gives us a call or drop us an email and let us know what your plans are. Hope your all having a great day!

12/1/11 Fly Fishing Season not totally over for some! Thats right some clients are taking advantage of some warmer than usual temps and getting out on the river for some late fall early winter fly fishing. Late Fall winter months often produce some of the biggest trout of the year as water flows are low and fish are concentrated in the deep holes and in the middle of the runs. If you have that fishing itch and just want a guided winter fishing trip give us a call and we will put you on a great day of fishing. Call Jason or Judy @307-267-255910/21/11 Grey Reef & Miracle Mile -Fall fly fishing at its best! What more could you honestly ask for, cool crisp mornings, warm days, fall colors on the trees, and a big trout chomping down on your streamer. Our float trips have been nothing short of spectacular with fantastic weather (NO WIND) and awesome fishing! Charlie pictured here just took a float trip with us and booked our daylight to dark trip package, they had a 45 fish day between two anglers and took this nice cutbow on a streamer. Get here soon as the weather is very pleasant. To book your trip today call Jason or Judy @ 307-267-2559

10/16/2011 Fall is here and the fly fishing is fantastic! Our Guide Tyler had a 60 fish day yesterday and had 9 fish breaking the 20 inch mark, of those 60 to the net they had 20 of them eat a fast stripped streamer! It’s arrived, fall the time of year for crisp cool mornings and warm days and for Monster Brown Trout. Those saught after bruisers are just about two weeks away from spawning and we are starting to just see a few male browns begin to get some spawning color on them. Fall float trips are always available and we have the guides to put you on the fish, give Jason or Judy a call at 307-267-2559.

Sept. 29, 2011 Miracle Mile is on Fire! We had two guide at the Mile yesterday chucking big streamers with big salt water hooks and the boys caught two fish over 25inches. Pictures to be posted soon. No brown trout staging at this time, all the browns we caught had zero spawning color on them. We have guides available call us at 307-267-2559 for trip bookings and details.

August 15, 2011 Miracle Mile fishing not so hot right now. We are still floating the Mile but a lot less than usual as water conditions are poor and the fishing is suspect. Less than 1ft of visibility from the Kortes Dam down to Pathfinder Res. We have done well dead drifting bigger flies like streamers on a nymph rig with an indicator but overall fishing is slow. We will be the first to report when things pick up at the Miracle Mile. On the flip side the Grey Reef sections all the way to Casper from Grey reef Dam are fishing lights out, both nymphing and streamer fishing, clients are getting into some very nice trout with some lucky anglers landing trout of a lifetime. To book your trip today call Jason or Judy @307-267-2559

August 10, 2011 Miracle Mile stretch is fishing good. Despite poor water clarity at the Mile it is still fishing well, some days better than others but then again isn’t that the way it is everywhere. We are dead drifting big flies like black bow river buggers and such having good luck catching big fish. This very colorful brown picture left was caught by one of our clients yesterday at the Mile with guide Tyler on a float trip. Taking into consideration the massive drop that left most of the bug life high and dry at the Mile (not to mention a few fish as well) there are no hatches to speak of at this time. The hopper fishing should heat up soon at the Mile especially if flows are bumped up or the water clarity gets better. To book your trip today call Jason or Judy @ 307-267-2559, we look forward to fishing with you!

Note: I got this comment from a client and it bears repeating, Jim Picardi says “when comparing outfitters in the area we chose Grey Reef Anglers for several reasons, #1 they have a tremendous return client base which speaks volumes about their services, and on their fishing report they actually post photos of fish caught that day which adds a lot of validity to the report. If you look back over the past fishing posts for the season the sheer volume of big fish photos, revealed to us that they are the ones we wanted to book with”. Just remember to do your homework as a prospecting client, there are several good outfitters in this area including us but as always there are some bad outfitters as well.

August 1, 2011, Grey Reef especially good on streamers right now, a few hopper fish being caught daily. We have been working the lower Grey Reef from our lodge downstream below Government Bridge all the way to Robertson Road. The streamer fishing has been the real highlight. We have had multiple fish over the 25inch mark and a lot of 22’s, 23’s being landed on big articulated streamers. The best part is our clients are getting to watch these trout swim hard and attack their streamers because we are stripping them fast and up high in the water column. This brown trout to the left ate a big root beer colored streamer right at the edge of the boat after chasing it down from the bank, all parties in the boat got to watch this fish cruise from over 15feet away to gobble up the big fly. Real fun! It’s a visual show not to be missed. When the heat builds we are getting a few trout on hoppers but not real consistent yet but I’m confident surface action will be great soon. The best part is all this great fishing is just seconds from our lodge so you don’t have long waits in the car, you’re out fishing right away on the drift boat. To book your trip call Jason or Judy @ 307-267-2559, we look forward to fishing with you!

July 31 , 2011 Miracle Mile giving up Nice Trout! Had return clients Ken and his father Neal from Broomfield, Colorado up for two days of fly fishing. Saturday they floated the upper Grey Reef with our Guide Tyler, so then today I floated them at the Miracle Mile today, water clarity isn’t very good right now at the Mile but despite that the father son team caught a lot of big cuttbows and rainbows dead drifting streamers alongside the drift boat. Neal landed a 23inch male cuttbow right away at the first hole we worked; the fish took a size 6 Black Bow River Bugger. To end the day the duo took on some rising Miracle Mile trout, both fellas had hookups on the hoppers, Neal broke his fish off and Ken’s hopper hookup came unhooked, fish 2 fishermen zero on hoppers. Just remember the old saying No Picture No Fish. Note: I got this comment from a client and it bears repeating, Jim Picardi says “when comparing outfitters in the area we chose Grey Reef Anglers for several reasons, #1 they have a tremendous return client base which speaks volumes about their services, and on their fishing report they actually post photos of fish caught that day which adds a lot of validity to the report. If you look back over the past fishing posts for the season the sheer volume of big fish photos, revealed to us that they are the ones we wanted to book with”. Just remember to do your homework as a prospecting client, there are several good outfitters in this area including us but as always there are some bad outfitters as well.
Grey Reef Anglers is excited to announce HOPPER Season 2011 has begun!July 24, 2011 Flows Drop & Hoppers That’s right folks here on the Grey Reef & Miracle Mile sections of the North Platte River the much anticipated grasshopper infestation has arrived. We have several banks on the North Platte here starting to produce big trout on the surface eating hopper patterns. The water levels are coming down to 5000cfs by July 29th, that’s a drop of over 3000cfs! This drop in water level couldn’t have come at a better time as it is coinciding with the influx of grasshoppers and their movements on the banks of the river. Hoppers are becoming more active by the day. This drop in water level also translates to even clearer water conditions making dry fly action even better!

If the hoppers go like last season we will see good dry fly action all the way to September 10th, BUT the best action last year was the first three weeks of August so get your trip booked today! We have guides ready to float you down the river and some availability on lodging just depending on the dates that you want, drop us a line and we will get you on the river for Hopper Season 2011 here on the North Platte River with Grey Reef Anglers.

July 21, 2011 Grey Reef & Miracle Mile fishing great! Another Big Brown caught today! Well we are busy to say the least, we just finished our overnight trips at the Miracle Mile, what a huge success. Clients can’t wait to do it again next year. We have had 3-4 boats out for the past 6 days and all our guides are coming in with either big fish landed (over 25inches) or the big fish up to the net but got away. The latest was today as Carl Anderson from Voluntown, CT landed a 25ich male brown at the Grey Reef that went 6-7lbs on a big streamer. Congrats to Carl and kudos to guide Luke for putting Carl on the spot with the right streamer and thanks to Luke for untangling Carl’s line from his own feet as he fought the bruiser. Just another big brown trout over 25inches that has been a string of big fish to the net in July! All in all the Grey Reef is fishing well on the banks, the hoppers at the Grey Reef are just about ready as many of the Hoppers are well over an inch long now. The Miracle Mile has already produced fish on the hopper patterns and should only get better as the summer heat continues. Stay tuned as we are at the Miracle Mile again tomorrow and just might have another big brown trout story for you. August hoppers give us a call limited space available Jason or Judy at 307-267-2559

July 15 2011, North Platte River fishing great right now for big trout! Had another great day on the water, Bill Rose and Paul from Tuscaloosa, Alabama got in on a 50 plus hookup day, Bill says 38 to the net, but the best part is we had over 20 of those fish that were just under or just over the 20 inch mark. The trout are chasing streamers as well, the picture left is another good shot of Ron Fong’s 27inch Brown we got throwing streamers 2 days ago. The fishing should remain great and the waters are all nice and clear, flows should drop in the next two weeks and lend itself to some great hopper action. We actually are starting to see some hoppers jumping into the water so shouldn’t be more than a week or so and it will be on! Get your hopper days booked now as dates for the hopper action go in a frenzy! Call Today 307-267-2559 and chat with Jason or Judy.

Ron Fong Brown on a yellow legged crawdad
July 13, 2011 First Timers having All the Luck! Congrats to client Ron Fong of Bozeman Montana lands a 27inch male Brown Trout on a streamer! This was Ron and wife Beverly’s first trip to the North Platte and they had great fishing. Both clients caught countless fish on the dry dropper rig but it was after the first couple hours of our day that I told Ron he had to switch to streamers. It wasn’t 10 minutes and Ron lands the 27inch bruiser. The crazy thing was that Ron actually hooked two Brown Trout over 25inches but didn’t have the fortune of landing the second brown that we both knew was bigger than the 27inch fish he had just landed! Must be first timers week because on Monday Jesse of Billings Montana had a brown almost to the net that exceeded thirty inches, unfortunately after a 10 minute fight and almost having the big brown in the net the bruiser ran out into the middle of the river and wrapped around a rock and broke off. That’s 3 trout in two days over 25inches, we got the big fish and the streamer action is heating up! Book Your Trip Today Jason or Judy @ 307-267-2559
July 12, 2011 Dry Fly Action continues to be Fantastic! Well the Golden Stone Hatch has tapered off a bit but now we have clouds of caddis coming off in the evening and the trout are going crazy eating on the surface. The middle of the day has been great if we have clouds, when its sunny we have been running a dry dropper rig and it’s been just silly the numbers of trout being caught by our clients. One such client David Potter of Ft. Collins, Colorado got in on some early dry dropper action and no joke he had 23 trout to the net on the first wade fishing hole! To land that many fish he had well over 40 hookups in that hole alone. That’s just a trout feeding frenzy! Give us a call we have Tyler & Luke available for some days still in July and these guides are dialed in and ready to show you a great time! Jason or Judy @ 307-267-2559

Dry Fly Fishing fantastic! Get here Now! Just got back from our dry fly camp, finishing 4 days of great dry fly fishing on the North Platte at the Miracle Mile. Had repeat customers CK and son and Grandpa Al out at camp, all three broke 20inches each day and CK and son broke 20inches on dry flies each day as well. Landed several Ochrid Brown Trout as well as big healthy cuttbows and rainbows. Some outfitters in the area are claiming dry fly action is far and few between but you have to actually be on the river like us to actually know where and when to fish the big Golden Stone Dry flies. We have been floating every day and the slowest day on dries so far has yielded 25 plus trout. Our guides are camped so they are seeing the river and its conditions 16 hours a day. Its easy to say in the prime time you will get 15-20 takes on the surface in an hour of fishing, that’s good dry fly fishing. We have been doing very well with Trinas Dog Puke Golden Stone, Miracle Stone, and a custom tied Elk hair Golden Stone. Remember folks those Golden Stones are dark underbodied with a tiny bit of orange up the middle of the abdomen. If you think your going get away using with a yellow hopper your mistaken. As an added bonus the late afternoon streamer fishing has been killer, had an hour yesterday and had 20 plus takes on the streamer and landed an even dozen all on a black bow river bugger.

Folks the hoppers are getting big fast I expect good hopper fishing by July 25th, get your trip booked today! 307-267-2559
July 4 Happy Independence Day!! Dry Fly Action awesome last two days!! Well the dry fly fishing has been really good, Luke took some of our clients down the canyon at the Miracle Mile and the fishing as he put it was very productive. My clients yesterday got in on floating the canyon as well, they both kept a fish count, not something I do but at days end they had 53 to the net on the day, with countless hookups on dries and nymphs. We had a much bigger fish day than Saturday; Sunday the river gave up at least a dozen trout over 20 inches. I noticed a lot of people struggling to catch fish on the banks yesterday, I think our success had a lot to do with two things, fly selections and the water type we were fishing and the fact that by floating the Mile with us you get access to water no one else can get to, so your fishing spots with little to no fishing pressure, and your with a guide who’s fishing it every day so he has the spots figured out, where the trout are at, what they are likely to eat, and just the right rig that will work.

Our Miracle Mile Dry Fly Camp 2011 has just a few openings over the giant golden stone hatch period they are as follows: July 9 – 2 boats, July 10 –1 boat, July 11-2 boats, July 12, 13-1 boat. Even if you want some dates that are not listed here give us a call we may be able to get you in. Call Today 307-267-2559.

Miracle Mile dry fly fishing.

Repeat client Steve from Colorado showing his catch
July 1, 2011 Dry Fly season is here!!!!! We had over 70 hookups on dry flies yesterday, the fishing is awesome! Good mix of brown trout and rainbows, even got one 22inch cutthroat as well. Weather is great, caddis, stones, the river is alive with insect activity and the trout are going crazy just stuffing themselves. If you like throwing big dry flies to trout you will want to get it now, few spots open for July give us a call at 307-267-2559.

August hoppers, get your booking in now as space is filling fast! Jason at 307-267-2559

North Platte Miracle Mile Fly Fishing Float Trips.

June 27, 2011 Grey Reef & Miracle Mile producing good fishing especially on streamers! Water temps are rising and the trout here in the North Platte are very aggressive right now. Ryan and I tried for big fish today and jerked streamers around the river all day. We had fantastic action to say the least. Ryan landed this rainbow pictured left just down from the boat ramp, and the brown trout pictured left was a brown I landed on a big articulated streamer. We had action all day but when the sun would go behind the clouds things seemed to slow down considerably, quite the opposite of what most streamer fishermen experience. The color streamers that worked best were copper and elk hair, and flashy white, we did pick up a few fallows on black streamers but no eaters. It was obvious from the get go the trout wanted the streamers moving very fast and you had to strip quickly to keep their interest. I expect as water temps continue to rise the streamer action will only get better and those North Platte River trophy trout will be on the line of some lucky client. To book your next fly fishing trip in Wyoming call us at 307-267-2559.

Reminder: Hopper season is just around the corner July and August are the two best dry fly months here on the North Platte River. We have Golden Stone’s coming off now and Hoppers will start last week in July. Space is limited so get your bookings in soon. Call us today to secure the dates you want 307-267-2559

6/24/11 North Platte River Miracle Mile section on fire! Hard to beat yesterday with 80 degree weather, no wind, and fantastic fishing. My clients Karen and Steve from Northern California enjoyed a fabulous day on the water catching a lot of hard fighting trout on stone fly nymphs, and leech patterns. Karen was the big fish catcher of the day and out did her husband by quite a few fish. Big trout of the day was 21inches, but we had several bigger fish jump up 3feet in the air and come unhooked which was as much fun watching as landing them! Hatches have picked up at the Mile and pmd’s, yellow sally’s, and caddis are dominate right now with some adult stone flies hatching. It won’t be long and dry fly action will be the ticket.
June 18, 2011 North Platte River fishing fantastic! We floated the Miracle Mile section again yesterday with return client Jim Picardi from Colorado. Jim has been fishing with me for years and we have been on a three day marathon adventure fishing different tailwaters sections each day. Jim had one of those days today that when you look back is really hard to believe. Jim had a lot of fish to the net, in the first hour of fly fishing he had over 20 hookups by himself! Jim retreats to Wyoming to fly fish with me time and time again because as he puts it “I’m that sort of guide that will go that extra mile to take him to new places and we always catch bigger fish than in Colorado”. Thanks Jim. With that said Jim ended the day with well over 50 trout to the net. Jim landed several nice brown trout including one Ochrid Brown and several trout that broke the 22inch mark! The biggest fish of the day broke off 12lb test tippet right at the boat just out of reach for the net. That fish was huge! Trout were eating leeches, scuds, stone nymphs, and even got a few on the dry fly, the dry fly season is almost here.
June 13, 2011 Miracle Mile continues to be fantastic fishing. Flows on the “Mile” were cut back a bunch, down almost a vertical foot from two days ago. Now holding at 7000cfs. The fly fishing continues to be fantastic with today’s clients Jeff & Nip from Arvada Colorado connecting on well over 30 trout each to the net. The upper section has been a tale of big numbers of fish but slightly smaller on average meanwhile the lower section has been giving up trout over 20 inches every day. We have new water to fish as the reservoir is now at full capacity and has the river backed up creating some new opportunities for both wade fishing and boat fishing. As my clients today discovered those trout right at the mouth of Pathfinder Reservoir are very big and they are eating streamers hard! If you got that itch to fish we’ve got the trip for you and your friends. Call & Book Today, Jason 307-267-2559.
June 11, 2011 Miracle Mile gives up Brook Trout!? We Floated the Miracle Mile yesterday with return clients Cliff and David from Ft. Collins, Colorado. The first spot we stopped at on our float to wade fish David ended up with over 15 hookups and broke double digit fish to the net all in the first hour of fishing! Meanwhile Cliff had the surprise of the month by hooking up and landing a 13inch female brook trout! I couldn’t believe what I was seeing in the net a Brook Trout, yellow spots and all. In 15 plus years of fishing the Mile myself and 10 plus years of guiding I‘ve never heard of nor witnessed anyone catching a brook trout at the Miracle Mile!? It was a very nice surprise. So we ended up with 7 or 8 brown trout on the day, countless rainbows and cuttbows, David landed 3 nice browns in a row with one over 20inches and two just under twenty inches, way to go David. We started the day putting in extra early, 6:30am and finished up by 3am, in that span we hooked over 60 trout and had 40 plus hard fighting fish to the net, a great day to say the least. The stunning thing is water clarity isn’t great at the Mile right now (less than 2 feet) but the trout don’t seem to mind one bit munching our flies left and right! If you have the fishing itch give us a call and book your trip today! Call Jason at 307-267-
June 7, 2011 North Carolina clients score big numbers at Miracle Mile! Bill & Eloise pictured left had some big number days at the Mile. Both had well over 25 hookups each and several trout exceeding 22inches respectively. Bill landed one very nice male brown trout, and Eloise had several epic battles with two fish taking her into her backing.

June 8, 2011 Washington state clients Maury and Hugh make most of high water! Both are return clients from previous years and both guys wade fished the best untouched water at the Mile hooking well over 50 trout between the two of them. We had 7 brown trout to the net on the day, two of which broke 20inches, way to go boys. Despite high water both gentlemen enjoyed wade fishing and boat fishing without any other boat traffic, it was great we saw one raft the entire day and that was for about 20 seconds as they floated past our wade fishing spots. If you like to wade fish for big trout on totally untouched water give us a call and we will fill you in on the details, Jason at 307-267-2559

June 6, 2011, Mile fishing great despite water color. Floated the Mile yesterday and had great fly fishing again, and with flows being bumped up again those trout are tighter to the banks than ever before. We ended up with 35-40 hookups and had a great day with some brand new fly fishermen for clients.

June 3, 2011 Miracle Mile is on fire! Clients are enjoying the best fly fishing I’ve ever seen at the “Mile”. Lots of hookups and some real bruisers being landed. The greatest thing is no one, including other outfitters are even floating the Mile. How do I know that, I’ve been up there 19 out of the last 23 days and I haven’t seen another guide boat…period. Solitude being provided by our guide service that goes out of their way to take you to where the fishing is best is priceless. Book your float trip today! Call Jason 307-267-2559
May 31, 2011 Miracle Mile & Grey Reef fishing remains excellent despite higher flows. Had a couple in from North Carolina the last three days, Eloise & Bill. Eloise had a very adventurous first day. We were wade fishing the Miracle Mile stretch and she hooked a trout that ripped out into the current and down stream, I determined immediately if we wanted to land the fish we would have to quickly get into the drift boat and chase it down the river as she was already into her backing on her fly reel. So we did just that and went ripping down the rapids with this trout just singing line off her reel. At one point Eloise is standing up in the front of the boat and we are going through 6ft waves but she just kept her concentration through the “rodeo” and finally we found some calm water about a quarter mile down river that we could land the trout in. We netted the fish and all had a big laugh and some serious high fives as the trout was well over the 20inch mark. Both clients had a great time and really enjoyed the solitude of the places I took them. It’s nice when clients really appreciate the entire experience of a fly fishing float trip. The biggest trout of the day a very thick 24’’ male rainbow Eloise landed just above the diversion dam. The fishing is excellent and the higher water is actually concentrating the trout rather than spreading them out and it has made the fishing spectacular!
Thursday May 26, 2011 Miracle Mile fishes fantastic today! Just got back from the Miracle Mile tailwater and the fishing was fantastic! Again we broke double digit hookups in the first ten minutes. Only fished until 2pm and had over 60 hookups between two guys. The flows are back up again to what they where a couple weeks ago, 9000cfs, the fish were in tighter to the banks than ever. We caught fish on big #4 stonefly nymphs, hotheaded leeches (aka egg sucking leech), bwo’s, bead head half back, and a 2mm bead egg pattern that is a dead on match to the sucker eggs the trout are eating right now. Pumped one such trout and it was seriously full of just sucker eggs. The high water made for awesome fly fishing and when the big fish take off in the current it’s a lot of fun! This picture left is of one such trout that made it to the net. If your interested in taking a float trip on a pristine stretch of fly fishing heaven give us a call and we will hook you up literally. Call Grey Reef Anglers Owner Jason at 307-267-2559

Saturday May 21, 2011 Miracle Mile Float Trip. Had 3 boats at the Mile today and all our guides had good fishing, Jeff (aka “BEAR”) son of Jack is pictured left with a great rainbow male he landed. Jeff was really on fire landing a bunch of fish as well as Jack. Both father and son enjoying some great times together. The trout at the Miracle Mile were eating leeches, scuds, worms, eggs, bwo’s, and big golden stone fly nymphs. The hot head leech was the fly of the day. Miracle Mile flows were down considerably from last week and has he fishing very good. Thanks Jack and Jeff for a great day!
5/19/2011 Three days straight “Mile” fishes lights out! Father and Son, Mike and Matt from Cheyenne where my clients today. I opted to go float the Mile again despite all the predictions about big rain coming in. Well we had very little rain and NO WIND at all. Mike and Matt had a day that was just awesome, landing countless numbers of trout and had a dozen fish top out just over 20inches. Mike said “It was the best fly fishing for trout he has ever seen”. This quote coming from a client who has fly fished Alaska twice for rainbows, not to mention countless western rivers. Mike and Matt both where into their backing on separate occasions fighting trout that made big ripping runs into heavy current. Not as strong of a blue wing hatch today but the trout were eating our flies recklessly. We threw a lot of different flies and for the most part they all caught fish, the best flies being the san juan worm, and hothead beaded leech. We also took fish on flashback pheasant tails, bead head scuds, golden stone nymphs, and yellow sally nymphs. Flows at the Miracle Mile are now down to 7200cfs and have dropped slightly each day.
5/17/2011 Big Trout, Big Numbers, Solitude! Ken Young of Tennessee lands a 24inch male rainbow yesterday! Ken and his wife Vicky where in town for a doctors convention and decided to take in some fly fishing while they were in Casper. We floated the Miracle Mile section and the fishing was unbelievable! Ken was the only one fishing while Vicky decided to run the camera and enjoy the float, Ken had over 50 hookups by himself! Ken was blessed by landing 6 fish over 20inches with his best fish right at 24inches. The day started off good but as the big BWO hatch started the fish got into a frenzy that lasted for the most part all day. Ken had times where we would land one fish and while wewere taking pictures his flies where hanging over the side of the boat and another would attack his flies. Was a great day, NO WIND at all. The best part of the day there wasn’t another fisherman to be seen. Get here while it lasts!
5/12/11 We don’t have any availability this Saturday, but Sunday the 15th we have availability for two boats. Give us a call 307-267-2559, Get out there and experience the best trophy fish season we have ever experienced here on the North Platte River. The fishing is fantastic! Our guides have been working hard on both the Grey Reef and Miracle Mile tailwater stretches of river and the guides are as we call it “dialed in”. Everyday out these guys are putting in the hours and figuring out how each hole fishes and what flies and rig to use in each specific spot. Along with a good sense of humor these guides make your trip fun and highly productive. Just read some of the previous posts below and see how good the fishing really is.
5/9/11 Miracle Mile Flows Drop Significantly fishing remains outstanding! The water flows have dropped and the clarity of the river is great, 4-5ft of visibility at the Mile. Floated the Mile yesterday and it produced much bigger fish than the three previous days. Looks like a second wave of big spawning rainbows has moved up and started to drop eggs. In the last week and a half we had been catching mainly post spawn fish but yesterday was a different story with a lot of 21-23inch female rainbows that where dropping eggs even in our nets prior to immediate release back to the water. Both my clients today were first time fly fishers and they landed 35-40 fish on the day, which is amazing for their first day ever fly fishing. They certainly were spoiled with great fishing and a sunny 75degree day.
Miracle Mile fished great yesterday. I have had a lot of folks calling and wondering what the high tent/uploads/2015/02/BigHookUp1-300×200.jpg” alt=”BigHookUp” water flows are doing to the fishing, so yesterday we hit the Miracle Mile section of the north Platte River which i
flowing at over 9000cfs, that’s twice the normal flow for this time of year. The fly fishing was spectacular. The first three spots we hit yielded over 25 trout to the net, all before 10am. It was a real case of trout eating everything in sight. We tried over a dozen different fly patterns and although some fished better than others they all caught their fair share of fish. The key was weight and length as some spots we fished 9ft leaders and 2-3/0 weights while other spots fished best with 4ft leaders and a single bb for weight. We landed a lot more brown trout than usual which was a welcomed sight. So by days end we had 50+ hookups and one fat female rainbow that measured 22inches, the fishing is great!
5/1/11 Mile water is up and fishing is fantastic! Water levels were bumped up to over 8000cfs, a little high but the fishing is really good despite the higher flows. We have been having great fly fishing at the Miracle Mile with plenty of hookups and some big fish being landed by clients. We are floating and finding fish very concentrated eating BWO’s, worms, prince nymphs, 20incher stone nymphs, and eggs. Water clarity is good, and the float fishing has been the ticket. Give us a call and we will get you out there to experience what a lot of clients have been enjoying, a great spring!
4/26/11 Miracle Mile fishes great two days straight. Guided clients on float trips at the Miracle Mile the last two days, the fishing and weather has been spectacular. Jim my client on Easter Sunday hooked over 50 fish by himself as a single client in the boat! Then yesterday Ben and Caroline were back from Michigan and on day 1 of their 3 tailwaters in 3 days float trip package, they both enjoyed a great Miracle Mile float trip. We floated the canyon and to say the fishing was good is an understatement. Ben and Caroline had 9 double hookups on the day! Great Blue Wing Olive hatch Sunday, and a late hatch yesterday made for some great evening fishing. We caught fish on egg patterns, worms, Prince Nymph, Bead head Half Back, and Copper Johns. But seriously I’m not sure fly selection was that important as those fish are just eating everything in sight!
4/24/11 Simply put, the fishing is just awesome right now! Been on the water a lot lately and not much time to post, all of our guides and myself have been enjoying spectacular fishing and great weather over this weekend, NO WIND the last two days at all! Its amazing how enjoyable the trips have been. We had several father son groups out, some first time fly fishermen and the beginners all caught and landed over 10 fish each. Some net totals coming in with over 50 trout to the net between two guys and some real big fish in those numbers as well. It might be the biggest average I’ve ever seen in 10 years of fishing this river, thanks to all the water the past two years. Great BWO hatches, no real fish rising to them but its been getting the fish real active and feeding heavy on the nymphs. So we been throwing BWO’s, eggs, rock worm, midges, and leeches.
4/21/11 Grey Reef, Miracle Mile, Wind River all fishing fantastic right now. We have been moving around a lot lately floating and fly fishing different tail waters including the Wind River, Miracle Mile, and Grey Reef. Fishing at the Grey Reef has been steady and consistent with a regular hatch of Blue Wing Olive(BWO’s) that have been coming off in the afternoon and the fish are keying in on them big time. The Wind River Tailwater below Wind River Canyon fished great yesterday as we floated and got in on a great BWO hatch as well. Trout were eating hard and heavy all day and we got some good streamer action. The Miracle Mile despite higher flows has been just as consistent with anglers and clients enjoying an average fish size of 19inches. The Miracle Mile and Grey Reef both continue to produce huge fish trophy size fish, this is the best big fish season I have seen in years and its only going get better with the big water we have. Get here soon!

4/18/11 Mile fishing good despite high water. Had clients out at the Mile and again the fishing was great, we are having good success nymphing throughout the entire stretch of river and the drift boat fishing has been really good. Streamers are slow but picking up a few here and their for those die hard streamer guys. Flows are at 6000cfs, but all that has done is opened up more places for fish to be and they are eating a lot. Catching a lot of pre-spawn female rainbows in slower water so the spawn is still yet to peak out, much later this year than last year. Starting to see some male “Buck” rainbows up guarding the spawning beds.
4/15/2011 Had to work for them today. Well the river got a little stained overnight and fishing was a bit off as this big cold front moved through. Today was sunny but had a very cool start to it, 28degrees at the Grey Reef boat ramp at 7am. My clients Tanner and Josh from Bozeman got off to an Ok start hooking up several times but getting a bunch of long distant releases. Then Josh landed a nice brown trout at the fence hole! Congrats Josh you caught a 2%’er. The fish were eating somewhat in the morning we had about 15 hookups prior to lunch. The afternoon got real hard as the fish just were not cooperating despite changing my rig and flies about ten times. I think the river should clear back up by tomorrow and be back to great action.
The picture left is a long time client and friend Dick, from Texas. Dick passed away recently after a bout with cancer. I had the pleasure of guiding Dick for many years. The bible and the coffee cup I use daily were given to me by Mr. DePetris. Dick actually came to my church service one Sunday he was out here before we went fishing for the day. I know this, the world could use a few more Dick DePetris’s, he was an upbeat kind, generous, and spirit filled man and he touched my life in just a few short days each year he visited. My only regret is that I didn’t get to spend some more time with him. I have been guiding for over ten years now and to this day I have yet to have a day fishing with someone as spectacular as a day I spent with Mr. DePetris in about 04 or 05. We actually counted which was not Dicks style, when asked how many fish he caught he always said “more than three, less than 100”! Well on that special day Dick landed 83 fish by himself and he had over 100 hookups, it is the single best day I have ever had on the water with a single fishermen and will never forget the smile on his face and the appreciation he had for Gods creation. Thanks Dick for being a wonderful client and friend.

4/14/2011 Great clients, great fun on the Grey Reef! Luke and just got off the water and we had a fantastic day with a family group down from Sheridan for the day. It was great having a father his three sons and the grandfather all together having a blast catching big trout and ribbing each other. My client Bill took a 22inch cuttbow right out of the gate as his first drift produced nicely. The rest of the day was really productive catching fish in all the runs and much of the in-between water. Last hour of the day was slow as we got down to Gov. Bridge. Our best flies included the dreaded rock worm, leech, and red lazy midge. I did pump one fish and this was the list of contenets: crane fly larva, leeches, earth worms, 5 big scuds, red midge larva, black midge pupa, part of a crawdad, and a mayfly nymph, WOW! That fish was eating heavy!

4/12/2011 Huge numbers day with zero wind and no other boats out! Well today was just one of those fishing days where everything goes right and you get awesome weather and fantastic fishing. Steve and Kim my clients from Cozad, Neb took full advantage of a sunny warm 60 degree NO wind day and to top that off they landed over 50 fish combined. We started the day with an egg and an orange bighorn scud and we never changed flies all day. We caught about 50% on the orange scud and 50% on the egg. We had the river entirely to ourselves, never even seen another boat, it was great. We caught a lot of pre spawn hens that were 19-21inches in that staging water behind the shelves and on the inside soft water. We ran deep all day 9-10ft leaders with a 3/0 and a bb for weights. Our biggest fish of the day was caught by Steve a 23inch male rainbow respectively. As far as a fishing report goes here is my suggestion, get here now, these fish are right on the edge of just going crazy with the spawn, my best guess is in about one week they are going to be spawning heavy and its gonna be crazy.

4/11/2011 Big numbers day! Went out today and worked some water that I had not fished yet this year and wow did it pay off. In a ten minute time period between two fishermen we had over 20 hookups and landed some real nice fish. A lot of pre spawn hens and some real colorful buck rainbows. The picture to the left was a hen rainbow we caught after two hours of just racking up big numbers to the net. All the fish we caught were eating the spherical nymph, and we even managed to catch a walleye on the fly rod, kinda weird but we kept him and ate him for supper, I had forgot how good walleye is!

My other clients spent the day down fishing the trophy pond and the report was good from them as well. They said they landed 39 fish is 4 hours, not bad for having never fished it, the biggest trout going just a touch over 21 inches.

4/10 /2011 Float Trip to the Miracle Mile guiding a guide. My clients today are both guides down on the Green River in Utah, they wanted to see what the North Platte River was all about and they took full advantage. We had just the two boats out today both of us floated the “Mile” and had good fishing in the morning and great fishing in the afternoon, our advantage all day was the fact that there were no other boats on the river, we had the entire river to ourselves on a Saturday! My clients kicked off there day landing multiple fish on the worm and red midge larva. The best fish in the morning was caught by Josey on a white streamer being dead drifted. Both boats had there best fishing at the end of the day, Larry landed two trout over 20inches and one female was so fat she looked like she swallowed a balloon. We also caught a very nice brown trout on an egg pattern.

4/5/11 Water levels rise and fishing getting better! The fishing at the Mile is great, red midges, flashback pheasant tails, and worms seem to be working great. There are fish starting to move up into that fast water and begin the spawn, be careful wading is difficult at best with flows just about 5000cfs. Taking a guide at these flows is a good way to take advantage of drift boat fishing. We have some week day openings in April and one weekend day available. 307-267-2559.

4/1/11 Multiple tailwaters, we are truly spoiled! We started by floating the Grey Reef Tailwater today and it was nothing short of spectacular. We really never changed flies and caught trout in all different water depths and speeds. We landed a lot of 17-18inch fish, nothing real big but the fish were keeping us busy. After floating 8miles of the Grey Reef we switched gears and headed to the Miracle Mile Tailwater to try our luck. As soon as we got set up at the “Mile” with a different rig we started fishing and were into fish very fast, we landed over ten trout within 15 minutes! Two of the hen rainbows we caught went over 23inches, and both very fat respectively. On the return home there were a lot of comments about how spoiled we are to have two very special tailwaters both so close to Casper.

If your interested in our multiple tailwater trips give us a call or go to our Trophy Trips page on the website to learn more about the one day marathon fly fishing adventure.

March 27, River flows are bumped up again. Another slight increase in flows, 3600cfs now, fishing remains good to great depending on the day. This upcoming weekend forcast looks great suppose to hit 70 degrees Saturday April 2. If you have that itch to get out on the water give us a call and we can set you up with one of our experienced guides. Bring on the spring fly fishing!

March 21, the weather is awesome and the fishing is picking up! We have some open dates just let us know what dates you want and we will get you on the river with a great guide. If you’ve never fished the North Platte at Grey Reef make this year your year to do it, fish numbers are as good as ever and overall fish size is as big as I have seen in 10+years of guiding the Grey Reef. This fish size is really due to the back to back big water years we have had and this year looks to be another big water year, that just means more fish exceeding that 25inch mark for our lucky customers. Give us a call and we will let you know what to expect from the most experienced guide staff on the river, as well as our variety of trip options including the Miracle Mile tailwater.

March 2, The weather is really starting to feel like spring, the temps will be in the high 40’s for the next few days. For those of us with cabin feaver it will feel like a heat wave! The water is clear and the fishing is heating up with the weather. Call or email any time for information and available dates.

Feb 19, North Platte Casper area now 50% ice free. Just got back from a trip on the lower river below Gov bridge, water is low, clear and ice free, and floatable down to Gov Bridge, ice conditions below Gov. Bridge are good-a litlle shlf ice but none in the river at all and clear as it gets. Just above Sechrist ramp is still jammed with ice though and so the river is NOT floatable below Gov Bridge except the short float to trappers. ALL of the upper river is open and fishing well, fish are still sluggish and weather is spotty at best.

Feb 16 Spring is just around the corner! Clients are asking so just wanting to post that we have guides ready if you want an early float trip, really only the upper river here is floatable, but with this weather the ice downstream will be gone quickly. We are starting the bulk of our spring float trips March 26 right after the spring flush is over. Directly after the flush is a great time to be here, it really triggers a lot of movement for pre-spawn rainbows and the fishing really starts getting good. If you don’t have your spring trip set up yet get your dates picked out and give us a call.

Feb 2, 2011 Best times to fish the North Platte.

Clients and newcomers always ask when the best times are to come and fish with us on the North Platte at Grey and Miracle Mile tailwaters. So I thought I would give a few late winter suggestions for people looking to book trips. March is the pre spawn month and typically the third week in March the Bureau of Rec. flushes the river below Grey Reef for a one week period, a response of fish moving up to spawn takes place directly after this flush and so starts the great spring float fishing. April – May are the big months for spawning trout and this is a great time to be here for nymph fishing, these two months are the best for just pure numbers of fish being caught as clients experience average boat days of 40-50 fish being landed to the net! June kicks off with fish dropping off the spawning beds and looking to replenish spent energy and weight, they eat readily catch rates are still very high as the hatches increase, and clients enjoy 40 fish days. During June expect to see backing at least once a day as water temps get above 50degrees and the trout are what we call red hot (fighting at their best!). July-August are by far the best dry fly months with hoppers, giant stone flies, and tricos, not to mention Yellow Sallies, Caddis etc… July and August are also in my opinion the best two months of the year for big trout being caught on streamers. Although overall numbers to the net drop off during this time period I feel the quality of the fish are better. September is a transition month and you can expect good fishing on the surface as well as streamers and nymphing, summer temps subside but expect mid 80’s for daytime highs. Fish numbers to the net are not what you see in the spring with a good day being 25-30 to the net. October – November is the big brown trout months especially the last part of Oct. and all of November, spawning brown trout and all trout in general are putting on that extra weight for the winter months, just check out some of the reports over these months and you’ll see why it is a great time to be here. Numbers increase through out the fall months and 50 plus fish days become more regular into November. Dec-Feb have a few warm days that lend itself to good fishing if your close enough to come to Casper when the weather is decent. Winter fishing is not for the faint of heart but has some nice rewards for your effort, expect catch numbers to be lower and fish to be lethargic when fighting.

Dec 5, 2010 Happy Holidays! We are booking our Grey Reef Lodge 2011 Season now, if your interested in our North Platte River fly fishing operation and need details call Grey Reef Anglers owner Jason at 307-267-2559. We hope you have a great winter and we thank you all for making our 2010 Wyoming fly fishing season a wonderful one! Take Care, and we look forward to hooking up with you for another great fly fishing season in 2011.

Nov 22 Early Winter fishing in Wyoming is red hot! Was out with cast and blast clients the past few days and the fishing has been super good. We landed 12 fish over the 20 inch mark on saturday and landed one female brown that was 24 inches. Miles and Trip both lodge clients from California braved the weather and it paid off big as they were both made beleivers of how good the North Platte River is for big trout.

My clients today where Neil & Ken a father son combo fly fishing trip. Our day in one word was as my clients put it, spectacular! The best fly fishing day they’ve ever had, according to them. We started the day using dry flies and the trout where eating on the surface with reckless abandon. We probably hooked 50 fish before lunch, un real! Ken ended up landing a 23” brown on the dry fly and then later in the day a 24” Yellowstone cutthroat on a caddis pattern. Pictures will be up soon. Neil was excited for his son to say the least. The afternoon slowed a bit but we did continue picking up fish on dries as we floated down river. What can I say, if I had to pick a time of year to get here and fish, this is it. These are the times I have to chuckle at all those guys that think the North Platte River has no dry fly fishing. Ha! Call us at 307-267-2559

12/19/11 Warm Winter & Gift Certificates Available. Grey Reef Anglers & Wingshooting has plenty of great gift certificates available for purchase for this Holiday Season, if your thinking of giving someone a gift what better than a guided fly fishing trip or wingshooting adventure. Call Jason or Judy @307-267-2559.
We are having a real warm start to winter with little to no moisture, after back to back hard winters its kinda nice to enjoy a warm one. Just hope we don’t start slipping into a drought. We are however filling up our 2012 Season dates for fishing so if your planning on fishing with us please gives us a call or drop us an email and let us know what your plans are. Hope your all having a great day!

12/1/11 Fly Fishing Season not totally over for some! Thats right some clients are taking advantage of some warmer than usual temps and getting out on the river for some late fall early winter fly fishing. Late Fall winter months often produce some of the biggest trout of the year as water flows are low and fish are concentrated in the deep holes and in the middle of the runs. If you have that fishing itch and just want a guided winter fishing trip give us a call and we will put you on a great day of fishing. Call Jason or Judy @307-267-2559
10/21/11 Grey Reef & Miracle Mile -Fall fly fishing at its best! What more could you honestly ask for, cool crisp mornings, warm days, fall colors on the trees, and a big trout chomping down on your streamer. Our float trips have been nothing short of spectacular with fantastic weather (NO WIND) and awesome fishing! Charlie pictured here just took a float trip with us and booked our daylight to dark trip package, they had a 45 fish on the day mostly taken on streamers and took this nice cutbow on a streamer. We have clear water and big trout waiting for you. Get here soon as the weather is very pleasant. To book your trip today call Jason or Judy @ 307-267-2559
10/16/2011 Fall is here and the fly fishing is fantastic! Our Guide Tyler had a 60 fish day yesterday and had 9 fish breaking the 20 inch mark, of those 60 to the net they had 20 of them eat a fast stripped streamer! It’s arrived, fall the time of year for crisp cool mornings and warm days and for Monster Brown Trout. Those saught after bruisers are just about two weeks away from spawning and we are starting to just see a few male browns begin to get some spawning color on them. Fall float trips are always available and we have the guides to put you on the fish, give Jason or Judy a call at 307-267-2559.

9/19/11 Fishing remains excellent! Flows have dropped down and the fishing is as good now as it is in the spring, ots of numbers and some big fish being landed by our clients. The streamer fishing is excellent right now and nymphing is crazy with 40-50 fish to the net every day for two guys. One of our guides Tyler had a half day float and they had 47 trout to the net in just over 4hours of fishing, that pretty much sums it up, get here as soon as you can. Best part is our private wade fishing is back and very good right in front of the lodge. We dont have any lodge availability the rest of September but we do have some spots available in October when the Brown trout start to stage for the spawn, for inquiries or bookings call Jason or Judy @307-267-2559
9/8/2011 September Fishing is off the hook! One of our guides Tyler broke in his brand new boat today in style, 45 fish to the net and 4 fish over 20inches. Nice work T and nice boat by the way. Grey Reef is fishing great and no one is out at all, guess everyone is in hunting mode already, Tyler only passed one boat the entire day! Fall is awesome here on the Grey Reef, no people and great fishing. Big flies on the nymph rig were working best and some good fish taken yesterday on the streamer with guide Luke and longtime client David Potter of Vail, CO. Luke says they only fished streamers for 1 hour and had 8 fish and several other fallows, got to love when the river drops and all the minnows and crawdads are forced into areas of the river that have no moss to hide in, turns the trout into absolute carnivores! Get out while the getting is good. For a trip booking or questions please call Jason or Judy @ 307-267-2559
August 21 Grey Reef Tail water fishing great! Our guides are dialed in and clients are catching a lot of quality trout right now. We have had a great August thus far, being on the river non-stop and the fishing is really good right now. The streamer action at times has been a bit slow but yesterday we woke up to thick overcast conditions and until about 11am enjoyed a lot of trout chasing our streamers. Light conditions play a big role in streamer success. We were running tandem sets of streamers with big black as the lead streamer and dropping a nice RJ Crawdad pattern off the back. I can say this the fishing is not easy for people just going on their own, talked to several rental boats with guys in them saying that this river is hard to fish at this level. They are right and that’s why having guides like us that are on the water every day keeping up with the subtle changes is vital to getting our clients into 40 plus fish days. On the nymph fishing side of things we have been averaging 40-50 hookups a day for two people and a lot of heavy healthy cuttbows, rainbows, and the occasional brown trout. We have been getting more browns to the net than I ever remember, maybe a population increase? That would be welcomed. The dry fly fishing has been hit and miss with one day producing several fish and the next nothing. To book your next North Platte River float trip call Jason or Judy @ 307-267-2559.
August 13, 2011 Grey Reef Trophy Trips are producing Big Trout! Return clients Mike and Earl Fukuhara had a great day on the river today! Part of a two boat group all the clients caught trout over the 20 inch mark and Dan landed a real trophy Brown that is pictured to the left here. Dan had this big brown trout eat a custom streamer right at the boats edge. The streamer fishing has been great and we are on that full moon cycle now so I expect even more trophy fish in days to come. We ended up nymphing most of the day except in a few key spots we fished streamers. The nymphing was just down right ridiculous with two fishermen combining with over 60 hookups on the day! But like most days we lost a lot of fish and ended up with around 35 trout to the net. Dans fish measure out at 23.5 inches and very thick, congrats Dan on a fine trout! Fish were just eating a variety of things Guide Luke Keil was getting them on the purple worm and a pmd nymph, and I was hooking a lot of fish on leeches and a soft hackle yellow sally pattern. To book your North Platte float trip today call Jason or Judy @ 307-267-2559, we look forward to fishing with you!
August 15, 2011 Miracle Mile fishing not so hot right now. We are still floating the Mile but a lot less than usual as water conditions are poor and the fishing is suspect. Less than 6inches of visibility from the Kortes Dam down to Pathfinder Res. We have done well dead drifting bigger flies like streamers on a nymph rig with an indicator but overall fishing is slow. We will be the first to report when things pick up at the Miracle Mile. On the flip side the Grey Reef sections all the way to Casper from Grey reef Dam are fishing lights out, both nymphing and streamer fishing, clients are getting into some very nice trout with some lucky anglers landing trout of a lifetime. To book your trip today call Jason or Judy @307-267-2559
July 21, 2011 Grey Reef & Miracle Mile fishing great! Another Big Brown caught today! Well we are busy to say the least, we just finished our overnight trips at the Miracle Mile, what a huge success. Clients can’t wait to do it again next year. We have had 3-4 boats out for the past 6 days and all our guides are coming in with either big fish landed (over 25inches) or the big fish up to the net but got away. The latest was today as Carl Anderson from Voluntown, CT landed a 25.5inch male brown at the Grey Reef that went 6-7lbs on a big streamer. Congrats to Carl and credit to guide Luke for putting Carl on the spot with the right streamer and thanks to Luke for untangling Carl’s line from his own feet as he fought the bruiser. Just another big brown trout over 25inches that has been a string of big fish to the net in July! All in all the Grey Reef is fishing well on the banks, the hoppers at the Grey Reef are just about ready as many of the Hoppers are well over an inch long now. The Miracle Mile has already produced fish on the hopper patterns and should only get better as the summer heat continues. Stay tuned as we are at the Miracle Mile again tomorrow and just might have another big brown trout story for you. August hoppers give us a call limited space available Jason or Judy at 307-267-2559
July 15 2011, North Platte River fishing great right now for big trout! Had another great day on the water, Bill Rose and Paul from Tuscaloosa, Alabama got in on a 50 plus hookup day, Bill says 38 to the net, but the best part is we had over 20 of those fish that were just under or just over the 20 inch mark. The trout are chasing streamers as well, the picture left is another good shot of Ron Fong’s 27inch Brown we got throwing streamers 2 days ago. The fishing should remain great and the waters are all nice and clear, flows should drop in the next two weeks and lend itself to some great hopper action. We actually are starting to see some hoppers jumping into the water so shouldn’t be more than a week or so and it will be on! Get your hopper days booked now as dates for the hopper action go in a frenzy! Call Today 307-267-2559 and chat with Jason or Judy.

Fong Brown Miracle Mile on a Yellow legged Crawdad
July 13, 2011 First Timers having All the Luck! Congrats to client Ron Fong of Montana lands a 27inch male Brown Trout on a streamer! This was Ron and wife Beverly’s first trip to the North Platte and they had great fishing. Both clients caught countless fish on the dry dropper rig but it was after the first couple hours of our day that I told Ron he had to switch to streamers. It wasn’t 10 minutes and Ron lands the 27inch bruiser. The crazy thing was that Ron actually hooked two Brown Trout over 25inches but didn’t have the fortune of landing the second brown that we both knew was bigger than the 27inch fish he had just landed! Must be first timers week because on Monday Jesse of Billings Montana had a brown almost to the net that exceeded thirty inches, unfortunately after a 10 minute fight and almost having the big brown in the net the bruiser ran out into the middle of the river and wrapped around a rock and broke off. That’s 3 trout in two days over 25inches, we got the big fish and the streamer action is heating up! Book Your Trip Today Jason or Judy @ 307-267-2559

July 12, 2011 Dry Fly Action continues to be Fantastic! Well the Golden Stone Hatch has tapered off a bit, but now we have clouds of caddis coming off in the evening and the trout are going crazy eating on the surface. The middle of the day has been great if we have clouds, when its sunny we have been running a dry dropper rig and it’s been just silly the numbers of trout being caught by our clients. One such client David Potter of Ft. Collins, Colorado got in on some early dry dropper action and no joke he had 23 trout to the net with guide Tyler on the first wade fishing hole! To land that many fish David had well over 40 hookups in that hole alone. That’s just a trout feeding frenzy! Give us a call we have Tyler & Luke available for some days still in July and these guides are dialed in and ready to show you a great time! Jason or Judy @ 307-267-2559
Dry Fly Fishing fantastic! Get here Now! Just got back from our dry fly camp, finishing 4 days of great dry fly fishing on the North Platte at the Miracle Mile. Had repeat customers CK and son and Grandpa Al out at camp, all three broke 20inches each day and CK and son broke 20inches on dry flies each day as well. Landed several Ochrid Brown Trout as well as big healthy cuttbows and rainbows. Some outfitters in the area are claiming dry fly action is far and few between but you have to actually be on the river like us to actually know where and when to fish the big Golden Stone Dry flies. We have been floating every day and the slowest day on dries so far has yielded 25 plus trout. Our guides are camped so they are seeing the river and its conditions 16 hours a day. Its easy to say in the prime time you will get 15-20 takes on the surface in an hour of fishing, that’s good dry fly fishing. We have been doing very well with Trinas Dog Puke Golden Stone, Miracle Stone, and a custom tied Elk hair Golden Stone. Remember folks those Golden Stones are dark underbodied with a tiny bit of orange up the middle of the abdomen. If you think your going get away using with a yellow hopper your mistaken. As an added bonus the late afternoon streamer fishing has been killer, had an hour yesterday and had 20 plus takes on the streamer and landed an even dozen all on a black bow river bugger.

Folks the hoppers are getting big fast I expect good hopper fishing by July 25th, get your trip booked today! 307-267-2559
July 4 Happy Independence Day!! Dry Fly Action awesome last two days!! Well the dry fly fishing has been really good, Luke took some of our clients down the canyon at the Miracle Mile and the fishing as he put it was very productive. My clients yesterday got in on floating the canyon as well, they both kept a fish count, not something I do but at days end they had 53 to the net on the day, with countless hookups on dries and nymphs. We had a much bigger fish day than Saturday; Sunday the river gave up at least a dozen trout over 20 inches. I noticed a lot of people struggling to catch fish on the banks yesterday, I think our success had a lot to do with two things, first your with a guide who’s fishing it every day so he has the spots figured out, where the trout are at, what they are likely to eat, and just the right rig that will work. If you want the best guides on the Miracle Mile you have to go with the guides that are thier everyday, our guides actually know the river because they are out thier everyday, the know the primitive put ins and take outs, instead of guides who only show up 1 day out of the week and dont even know where to put thier boat in. Don’t spend that hard earned money and get a guide that doesn’t know the river.

Our Miracle Mile Dry Fly Camp 2011 will be set up for clients wanting to stay the night out on the river; we have just a few openings over the giant golden stone hatch period they are as follows: July 9 – 2 boats, July 10 –1 boat, July 11-2 boats, July 12, 13-1 boat. Even if you want some dates that are not listed here give us a call we may be able to get you in. Call Today 307-267-2559.
June 1, 2011 Dry Fly season is here!!!!! We had over 70 hookups on dry flies yesterday on the river, this fishing is awesome! Good mix of brown trout and rainbows, even got one 22inch cutthroat as well. Weather is great, caddis, stones, the river is alive with insect activity and the trout are going crazy just stuffing themselves. If you like throwing big dry flies to big trout you will want to get it now, few spots open for July give us a call at 307-267-2559.

6/29/11 Grey Reef Lodge Pond Report Just a quick note here we fished the trophy pond by the lodge late yesterday and the trout are getting big, and the trout are eating dry fly patterns. This pond is a nice option for anglers looking for early dry fly action as well as a great beginner confidence builder. The fish are running between 19-23 inches right now but we caught one rainbow yesterday that broke 25inches! The best part is the water in super clear and you can watch the trout come up and eat your dry fly, good fun! Check below for river report.

June 27, 2011 Grey Reef & Miracle Mile producing good fishing especially on streamers! Water temps are rising and the trout here in the North Platte are very aggressive right now. Ryan and I tried for big fish today and jerked streamers around the river all day. We had fantastic action to say the least. Ryan landed this rainbow pictured left just down from the boat ramp, and the brown trout pictured left was a brown I landed on a big articulated streamer. We had action all day but when the sun would go behind the clouds things seemed to slow down considerably, quite the opposite of what most streamer fishermen experience. The color streamers that worked best were copper and elk hair, and flashy white, we did pick up a few fallows on black streamers but no eaters. It was obvious from the get go the trout wanted the streamers moving very fast and you had to strip quickly to keep their interest. I expect as water temps continue to rise the streamer action will only get better and those North Platte River trophy trout will be on the line of some lucky client. To book your next fly fishing trip in Wyoming call us at 307-267-2559.
Reminder: Hopper season is just around the corner July and August are the two best dry fly months here on the North Platte River. We have Golden Stone’s coming off now and Hoppers will start last week in July. Space is limited so get your bookings in soon. Call us today to secure the dates you want 307-267-2559.
June 24, 2011 Wyoming Fly Fishing is awesome right now! Had a chance to streamer fish the Wyoming Big Horn River section below the Wind River Canyon two days ago and had some exciting fishing. We just pitched streamers all day and floated to the Hot Springs twice. We had a lot of activity with trout chasing and fallowing our streamers up on the surface. Luke landed this nice cuttbow pictured left and safely release this 22inch brute. I had two brown trout all the way to the boat chasing my 6inch streamer but couldn’t seal the deal, par for my luck. We are really blessed in Wyoming that we have multiple tail water rivers below dams that have great water control and are NOT blown out with dirty water like most freestone rivers are right now. No real RunOff below these dams. So if your looking for clear water and some great fishing I suggest booking a trip with us on one of these tailwaters.

June 19, 2011 Trophy Trout Days are Here! Water temps are increasing daily here on the North Platte River and it has those big brown trout on the offensive. Had my client Jim throwing big six inch long streamers all day and the big fish were attacking. Jim only had 12 takes on the day with 9 hookups but he ended up hooking up with 4 trout over 25inches! Jim had one other monster brown trout that we both got to watch eat his fly just under the surface that may have been in the 30inch category, but the huge brown ate and ran with a vengeance and ended up breaking off 15lb test, holy [email protected]#$!. It was the best big fish streamer day I have ever had the privilege of being on the oars, amazing. If you’re looking to score that big trophy trout of a lifetime or just want to go out and catch a bunch of trout give us a call and book Your fly fishing trip Today. Jason 307-267-25
June 18, 2011 North Platte River fishing fantastic! We floated the Miracle Mile section again yesterday with return client Jim Picardi from Colorado. Jim has been fishing with me for years and we have been on a three day marathon adventure fishing different tailwaters sections each day. Jim had one of those days today that when you look back is really hard to believe. Jim had a lot of fish to the net, in the first hour of fly fishing he had over 20 hookups by himself! Jim retreats to Wyoming to fly fish with me time and time again because as he puts it “I’m that sort of guide that will go that extra mile to take him to new places and we always catch bigger fish than in Colorado”. Thanks Jim. With that said Jim ended the day with well over 50 trout to the net. Jim landed several nice brown trout including one Ochrid Brown and several trout that broke the 22inch mark! The biggest fish of the day broke off 12lb test tippet right at the boat just out of reach for the net. That fish was huge! Trout were eating leeches, scuds, stone nymphs, and even got a few on the dry fly, the dry fly season is almost here.
June 13, 2011 Miracle Mile continues to be fantastic fishing. Flows on the “Mile” were cut back a bunch, down almost a vertical foot from two days ago. Now holding at 7000cfs. The fly fishing continues to be fantastic with today’s clients Jeff & Nip from Arvada Colorado connecting on well over 30 trout each to the net. The upper section has been a tale of big numbers of fish but slightly smaller on average meanwhile the lower section has been giving up trout over 20 inches every day. We have new water to fish as the reservoir is now at full capacity and has the river backed up creating some new opportunities for both wade fishing and boat fishing. As my clients today discovered those trout right at the mouth of Pathfinder Reservoir are very big! If you got that itch to fish we’ve got the trip for you and your friends. Call & Book Today, Jason 307-267-2559.
June 12, 2011 Grasshopper & Stonefly season just about here! You might consider getting booked now for the hopper and stone fly dry fly season which starts July 1st. We have some dates open for the stonefly hatch and the NCWP is predicting another HIGH density grasshopper infestation along the North Platte River, hoppers start July 20th and looks to be just as good or better than last years grasshopper invasion! Call us today 307-267-2559.
June 11, 2011 Miracle Mile gives up Brook Trout!? We Floated the Miracle Mile yesterday with return clients Cliff and David from Ft. Collins, Colorado. The first spot we stopped at on our float to wade fish David ended up with over 15 hookups and broke double digit fish to the net all in the first hour of fishing! Meanwhile Cliff had the surprise of the month by hooking up and landing a 13inch female brook trout! I couldn’t believe what I was seeing in the net a Brook Trout, yellow spots and all. In 15 plus years of fishing the Mile myself and 10 plus years of guiding I‘ve never heard of nor witnessed anyone catching a brook trout at the Miracle Mile!? We have caught walleye before but a Brook trout? It was a very nice surprise. So we ended up with 7 or 8 brown trout on the day, David landed 3 nice browns in a row with one over 20inches and two just under twenty inches, way to go David. We started the day putting in extra early, 6:30am and finished up by 3am, in that span we hooked over 60 trout and had 40 plus hard fighting fish to the net, a great day to say the least. The stunning thing is water clarity isn’t great at the Mile right now (less than 1foot) but the trout don’t seem to mind one bit munching our flies left and right! If you have the fishing itch give us a call and book your trip today! Call Jason at 307-267-2559.
June 7, 2011 North Carolina clients score big numbers at Miracle Mile! Bill & Eloise pictured left had some big number days at the Mile. Both had well over 25 hookups each and several trout exceeding 22inches respectively. Bill landed one very nice male brown trout, and Eloise had several epic battles with two fish taking her into her backing.

June 8, 2011 Washington state clients Maury and Hugh make most of high water! Both are return clients from previous years and both guys wade fished the best untouched water at the Mile hooking well over 50 trout between the two of them. We had 7 brown trout to the net on the day, two of which broke 20inches, way to go boys. Despite high water both gentlemen enjoyed wade fishing and boat fishing without any other boat traffic, it was great we saw one raft the entire day and that was for about 20 seconds as they floated past our wade fishing spots. If you like to wade fish for big trout on totally untouched water give us a call and we will fill you in on the details, Jason at 307-267-2559

6/1/11 My daughters day on the water! Well today I had a day off and we decided as a family to go fishing. I have 4 daughters, but Leah our youngest daughter is only 5 months old so she didn’t fish, but the other three are 8, 6, and 4 years old and they di fish. We took the boat out and sure enough all three oldest daughters caught nice rainbows, Reese my 4 year old caught the biggest trout of them all AND LET EVERYONE IN THE BOAT KNOW IT! Way to go PeeWee you’re the best, I love ya! This was a great time to be a family, I encourage all fathers to take your kids out, even if you don’t catch fish they are going to have a blast!

Fishing Report: Grey Reef fishing great. Our clients have been absolutely blessed with outstanding days on the water and especially now that the weather is much warmer. Higher water flows on the river right now lends itself to little or no wade fishing on the Grey Reef, and don’t be fooled there hasn’t been any guide wade fishing the Grey Reef at all, its been all boat fishing…period. So it makes no difference how much private land we have as an outfitter or anyone else has for that matter. Do your homework and hire a guide that knows the topography of the bottom like our guides, because the entire Grey Reef on the surface looks the same, big flat water and quite featureless. Hiring a guide that knows the shelves and drop offs is a huge plus, I see rookie guides getting schooled right now, don’t be the client that ends up in that boat. Give us a call and get on the North Platte River with a proven veteran guide crew.

May 31, 2011 Miracle Mile is on fire! Clients are enjoying the best fly fishing I’ve ever seen at the “Mile”. Lots of hookups and some real bruisers being landed. The greatest thing is no one, including other outfitters are even floating the Mile. How do I know that, I’ve been up there 19 out of the last 23 days and I haven’t seen another guide boat…period. Solitude being provided by our guide service that goes out of there way to take you to where the fishing is best is priceless.

May 30, 2011 Happy Memorial Day! Thanks to ALL service men and women we owe you our deepest gratitude for your sacrafice. Now go catch some fish!
May 29, 2011 The Grey Reef fishing is great! PMD’s coming off soon. I floated my clients today from Grey Reef Dam to the Grey Reef Anglers Lodge ramp below Government Bridge. This private ramp access gives us a real jump on the other boats and as we float by each take out point and look at all the trucks its nice to know ALL those boats are behind us and we have the river literally to ourselves. Yesterday this gave us first crack at the holes, runs and seems holding trout. My clients Bill and Eloise from North Carolina enjoyed some big trout smashing there fly and the solitude of a quiet float trip without the crowds. Eloise for the second day straight was the big fish catcher as she landed several cuttbows and rainbows over the 22 inch mark , while Bill manage one fish over 20inches on the day. The flows were bumped up to 6200cfs but the fishing was not effected that much as we landed around 25 big trout. Some spots below the Lusby access did fish a little slower but probably had more to do with a poor bwo hatch yesterday than the water coming up. Folks don’t forget Pale Morning Duns are the next big hatch here in June along with the late June start of Yellow Sally Stonefly hatch. The PMD hatch over the years has offered up some of the most consistent dry fly fishing on this river excluding the Tricos. So grab a friend and get here the fishing is awesome
Sunday May 22, 2011, Huge fish dominate the day! Had 3 guide boats at the Grey Reef today. This time it was son Mark (aka ?) son of Jack that was the big fish catcher. Mark hooked up and landed a 26inch male cuttbow just above Ledge Creek. It was about a 5minute battle but Mark got the fish to the net and just as I netted the fish it came unhooked, nice going Mark! Congrats on a fantastic trout. Many people will go there entire life and not catch a trout that big, but you have a great chance here on the Grey Reef of the North Platte River. All of our guides had good productive days catching fish on a variety of rigs and flies. Oh and Yes the SUN was Shining brightly, it’s about time!
5/17/2011 Big Trout, Big Numbers, Solitude! Ken Young of Tennessee lands a 24inch male rainbow yesterday! Ken and his wife Vicky where in town for a doctors convention and decided to take in some fly fishing while they were in Casper. We floated the Miracle Mile section and the fishing was unbelievable! Ken was the only one fishing while Vicky decided to run the camera and enjoy the float, Ken had over 50 hookups by himself! Ken was blessed by landing 6 fish over 20inches with his best fish right at 24inches. The day started off good but as the big BWO hatch started the fish got into a frenzy that lasted for the most part all day. Ken had times where we would land one fish and while we were taking pictures his flies where hanging over the side of the boat and another would attack his flies. Was a great day, NO WIND at all. The best part of the day there wasn’t another fisherman to be seen. Book your trip today!
5/16/2011 We have some openings. I’ve been getting quite a few calls from folks who assume we don’t have any openings, and just want folks to know that we have guides ready and some openings available for June and a few in May. You may not get the requested guide you want but we can get you out on the river with one of our other veteran guides. These boys know the river and its topography, and what flies to fish and when to fish them. They know high water and have been putting people on fish in the high water for the last two months straight. When they aren’t guiding they are out fishing for themselves learning little hot spots that aren’t so obvious. That way when you book a trip with us our guides have the utmost confidence and are prepared to put you on the trout and have a great time on the river. Give us a call for availability, 307-267-2559 Just check out the reports below and get an idea of how good the fishing is!
5/15/11 We had four boats out Saturday on the upper Grey Reef section for a client’s bachelor party. The boys all had a lot of fun catching trout and razzing each other. The day was dominated by fish being caught on worms, leeches, and eggs. We took this stomach sample pictured left and as you can see leeches, and earth worms are on the trout’s menu. Several nice fish were caught on the day, but novice angler Mic took the prize with a 23 inch male brown trout caught below Government Bridge. We are seeing a lot more yellow sally nymphs and pmd nymphs showing up in trout stomach samples below the bridge and the lower on the Grey Reef you go the more prevalent it is. It won’t be long and the Yellow Sally hatch and pmd’s will be going strong in June, a great time to get here and fish the North Platte River.
5/12/11 We don’t have any availability this Saturday, but Sunday the 15th we have availability for two boats. Give us a call 307-267-2559, Get out there and experience the best trophy fish season we have ever experienced here on the North Platte River. The fishing is fantastic! Our guides have been working hard on both the Grey Reef and Miracle Mile tailwater stretches of river and the guides are as we call it “dialed in”. Every day out these guys are putting in the hours and figuring out how each hole fishes and what flies and rig to use in each specific spot. Along with a good sense of humor these guides make your trip fun and highly productive. Just read some of the previous posts below and see how good the fishing really is.
5/8/11 Lower Grey Reef is fishing great! Floated down on the lower Grey Reef from the Lodge ramp to Bessemer Bridge with return clients from NY. Jack brought his wife and daughter on this float to get in on some great fly fishing action. Both real beginners but that didn’t stop them from landing multiple fish over the 20inch mark. Not be out done while the boat was anchored and I was netting a fish for Barbara, Jack dangled his flies over the side of the boat and caught the biggest fish of the day! It was just one of those days where all you needed to do is just get your flies in the water and the fish would attack, go figure. Water clarity was great and the fishing on the lower is prime right now, all that and we only witnessed one other boat the entire day! No pressure what so ever, you have to love a river this good that has no pressure except the top 8 miles below Grey Reef Dam.
5/2/11 Cold Weather going to give way to 70degree Days! Forecast shows warm weather on its way! Fishing remains excellent despite the cold weekend we had here at the Grey Reef. Had a chance to float the lower river yesterday and had good nymphing and even got one nice rainbow over 20 inches on a big streamer. Picking up fish on Badger Specials, San Juan Worms, and Bead Head Leeches, all being fished in the soft water. The water clarity got even better with the river flows being bumped up again. We should see 7000cfs soon as the Miracle Mile is above 8000cfs now and rising. To those who don’t know, the Grey Reef and Miracle Mile are all Dam controlled waters and we rarely see muddy water conditions, so when most spring rivers are muddy we have clear water and great fishing. The weather forecast for this upcoming week and weekend looks awesome, low 70’s and NO WIND! Give us a call and we will get you on the river catching big trout!
4/28/11 Awesome Fishing, Great Weather! Last couple days fishing has been very good with some fantastic (NO WIND!) days on the water. Yesterday we wrapped up day 3 of a three day float trip on three different tail waters and it ended with a bang as Ben landed a 22inch Male Brown Trout on a streamer. The streamer action at days end was quite good with several fish hitting and Ben landed a Snake River Cutthroat, a Rainbow, and a Brown consecutively. We also got in on some good dry fly action as trout were eating on the surface chasing Blue Wings. Blue Wing Olive hatch is strong on all three tail waters, along with midges.

Note: We just had a cancellation for Sat & Sun April 30-May 1, for up to 6 people, 3 boats. Call us at 307-267-2559 and we will get you out on the water catching fish.

4/26/11 Miracle Mile fishes great two days straight. Guided clients on float trips at the Miracle Mile the last two days, the fishing and weather has been spectacular. Jim my client on Easter Sunday hooked over 50 fish by himself as a single client in the boat! Then yesterday Ben and Caroline were back from Michigan and on day 1 of their 3 tailwaters in 3 days float trip package, they both enjoyed a great Miracle Mile float trip. We floated the canyon and to say the fishing was good is an understatement. Ben and Caroline had 9 double hookups on the day! Great Blue Wing Olive hatch Sunday, and a late hatch yesterday made for some great evening fishing. We caught fish on egg patterns, worms, Prince Nymph, Bead head Half Back, and Copper Johns. But seriously I’m not sure fly selection was that important as those fish are just eating everything in sight!
4/24/11 Simply put, the fishing is just awesome right now! Been on the water a lot lately and not much time to post, all of our guides and myself have been enjoying spectacular fishing and great weather over this weekend, NO WIND the last two days at all! Its amazing how enjoyable the trips have been. We had several father son groups out, some first time fly fishermen and the beginners all caught and landed over 10 fish each. Some net totals coming in with over 50 trout to the net between two guys and some real big fish in those numbers as well. It might be the biggest average I’ve ever seen in 10 years of fishing this river, thanks to all the water the past two years. Great BWO hatches, no real fish rising to them but its been getting the fish real active and feeding heavy on the nymphs. So we been throwing BWO’s, eggs, rock worm, midges, and leeches.
4/21/11 Grey Reef, Miracle Mile, Wind River all fishing fantastic right now. We have been moving around a lot lately floating and fly fishing different tail waters including the Wind River, Miracle Mile, and Grey Reef. Fishing at the Grey Reef has been steady and consistent with a regular hatch of Blue Wing Olive(BWO’s) that have been coming off in the afternoon and the fish are keying in on them big time. The Wind River Tailwater below Wind River Canyon fished great yesterday as we floated and got in on a great BWO hatch as well. Trout were eating hard and heavy all day and we got some good streamer action. The Miracle Mile despite higher flows has been just as consistent with anglers and clients enjoying an average fish size of 19inches. The Miracle Mile and Grey Reef both continue to produce huge fish trophy size fish, this is the best big fish season I have seen in years and its only going get better with the big water we have. Get here soon!
4/18/11 Weekend trips go very well! Had several client groups out this weekend and clients are coming back excited about the size of fish being caught, even got a couple browns on the upper. My clients CK & son Ravi return clients had a good couple days on the Grey Reef. Picture left of the father son combo enjoying some hard fighting fish! Fish are eating red midge larva, leeches, bwo’s, worms, and scuds. The blue wing olive hatch has started to become much stronger the last few days and the fish are keying in on their activity for sure. We have some weekdays open for float trips just give us a call and we will get you on the river. The peak of the spawn is still to come, the spawn is much further behind schedule from most years.
4/15/2011 Had to work for them today. Well the river got a little stained overnight and fishing was a bit off as this big cold front moved through. Today was sunny but had a very cool start to it, 28degrees at the Grey Reef boat ramp at 7am. My clients Tanner and Josh from Bozeman got off to an Ok start hooking up several times but getting a bunch of long distant releases. Then Josh landed a nice brown trout at the fence hole! Congrats Josh you caught a 2%’er. The fish were eating somewhat in the morning we had about 15 hookups prior to lunch. The afternoon got real hard as the fish just were not cooperating despite changing my rig and flies about ten times. I think the river should clear back up by tomorrow and be back to great action.
The picture left is a long time client and friend Dick, from Texas. Dick passed away recently after a bout with cancer. I had the pleasure of guiding Dick for many years. The bible and the coffee cup I use daily were given to me by Mr. DePetris. Dick actually came to my church service one Sunday he was out here before we went fishing for the day. I know this, the world could use a few more Dick DePetris’s, he was an upbeat kind, generous, and spirit filled man and he touched my life in just a few short days each year he visited. My only regret is that I didn’t get to spend some more time with him. I have been guiding for over ten years now and to this day I have yet to have a day fishing with someone as spectacular as a day I spent with Mr. DePetris in about 04 or 05. We actually counted which was not Dicks style, when asked how many fish he caught he always said “more than three, less than 100”! Well on that special day Dick landed 83 fish by himself and he had over 100 hookups, it is the single best day I have ever had on the water with a single fishermen and will never forget the smile on his face and the appreciation he had for Gods creation. Thanks Dick for being a wonderful client and friend.
4/14/2011 Great clients, great fun on the Grey Reef! Luke and just got off the water and we had a fantastic day with a family group down from Sheridan for the day. It was great having a father his three sons and the grandfather all together having a blast catching big trout and ribbing each other. My client Bill took a 22inch cuttbow right out of the gate as his first drift produced nicely. The rest of the day was really productive catching fish in all the runs and much of the in-between water. Last hour of the day was slow as we got down to Gov. Bridge. Our best flies included the dreaded rock worm, leech, and red lazy midge. I did pump one fish and this was the list of contenets: crane fly larva, leeches, earth worms, 5 big scuds, red midge larva, black midge pupa, part of a crawdad, and a mayfly nymph, WOW! That fish was eating heavy!
4/12/2011 Huge numbers day with zero wind and no other boats! Well today was just one of those fishing days where everything goes right and you get awesome weather and fantastic fishing. Steve and Kim my clients from Cozad, Neb took full advantage of a sunny warm 60 degree NO wind day and to top that off they landed over 50 fish combined. We started the day with an egg and an orange bighorn scud and we never changed flies all day. We caught about 50% on the orange scud and 50% on the egg. We had the river entirely to ourselves, never even seen another boat, it was great. We caught a lot of pre spawn hens that were 19-21inches in that staging water behind the shelves and on the inside soft water. We ran deep all day 9-10ft leaders with a 3/0 and a bb for weights. Our biggest fish of the day was caught by Steve a 23inch male rainbow respectively. As far as a fishing report goes here is my suggestion, get here now, these fish are right on the edge of just going crazy with the spawn, my best guess is in about one week they are going to be spawning heavy and its gonna be crazy.
4/11/2011 Big numbers day! Went out today and worked some water that I had not fished yet this year and wow did it pay off. In a ten minute time period between two fishermen we had over 20 hookups and landed some real nice fish. A lot of pre spawn hens and some real colorful buck rainbows. The picture to the left was a hen rainbow we caught after two hours of just racking up big numbers to the net. All the fish we caught were eating the spherical nymph, and we even managed to catch a walleye on the fly rod, kinda weird but we kept him and ate him for supper, I had forgot how good walleye is!
My other clients spent the day down fishing the trophy pond and the report was good from them as well. They said they landed 39 fish is 4 hours, not
bad for having never fished it, the biggest trout going just a touch over 21 inches.
4/10 /2011 Float Trip to the Miracle Mile guiding a guide. My clients today are both guides down on the Green River in Utah, they wanted to see what the North Platte River was all about and they took full advantage. We had just the two boats out today both of us floated the “Mile” and had good fishing in the morning and great fishing in the afternoon, our advantage all day was the fact that there were no other boats on the river, we had the entire river to ourselves on a Saturday! My clients kicked off there day landing multiple fish on the worm and red midge larva. The best fish in the morning was caught by Josey on a white streamer being dead drifted. Both boats had there best fishing at the end of the day, Larry landed two trout over 20inches and one female was so fat she looked like she swallowed a balloon. We also caught a very nice brown trout on an egg pattern.
4/9/11 Fished a little off today. So we floated Grey Reef to Limmers-(Private ramp) today with some good early morning success, then they bumped the water level again while we were on the river and it threw the fishing off a bit, we still caught fish but not a big numbers day. Pumped a lot of fishes stomachs today and it was a regular Hienz 57 with everything under the moon in them including, caddis, scuds, leeches, worms, crawdads, beatis, midges, eggs, and minnows. The fish at the Reef are in full spawn mode. We are gonna hit the Mile with clients today and I will have a report in the am. Note: The dates we have open right now for April guided trips are 12, 14, 18-21, 24, 28-30. We have various open dates for the lodge just let us know how many rooms and what dates and we will see if we can get you in. Call Jason or Judy 307-267-255
3/31/11 Great Day Fishing below Grey Reef Dam! Again today was just a great day to be on the water. Great weather, got to 63degrees and light winds. Floated the upper grey reef and tried fishing several different fly rods each rigged a bit different. Had a swivel rig on one rod with a long 12ft leader that proved very effective especially in the faster deeper water. On another rod we went short about 6ft leader and fished that rig way inside the seams and it proved very effective as well. So the consensus is that we just had to match our rig and leader length to the water type whether it be fast shallow slow or deep. Its not rocket science but it was interesting to see how each rig performed in each water type. So with this higher flow looks to me like either a long liner or a short inside approach is working great! Give us a call for latest conditions and line up your float trip today, 307-267-2559.
3/28/11 Multiple tailwaters, we are truly spoiled! We started by floating the Grey Reef Tailwater today and it was nothing short of spectacular. We really never changed flies and caught trout in all different water depths and speeds. We landed a lot of 17-18inch fish, nothing real big but the fish were keeping us busy. After floating 8miles of the Grey Reef we switched gears and headed to the Miracle Mile Tailwater to try our luck. As soon as we got set up at the “Mile” with a different rig we started fishing and were into fish very fast, we landed over ten trout within 15 minutes! Two of the hen rainbows we caught went over 23inches, and both very fat respectively. On the return home there were a lot of comments about how spoiled we are to have two very special tailwaters both so close to Casper.
If your interested in our multiple tailwater trips give us a call or go to our Trophy Trips page on the website to learn more about the one day marathon fly fishing adventure.
March 27, River flows are bumped up again. Another slight increase in flows, 3600cfs now, fishing remains good to great depending on the day. This upcoming weekend forcast looks great suppose to hit 70 degrees Saturday April 2. If you have that itch to get out on the water give us a call and we can set you up with one of our experienced guides. Bring on the spring fly fishing!
March 21, the weather is awesome and the fishing is picking up! We have some open dates just let us know what dates you want and we will get you on the river with a great guide. If you’ve never fished the North Platte at Grey Reef make this year your year to do it, fish numbers are as good as ever and overall fish size is as big as I have seen in 10+years of guiding the Grey Reef. This fish size is really due to the back to back big water years we have had and this year looks to be another big water year, that just means more fish exceeding that 25inch mark for our lucky customers. Give us a call and we will let you know what to expect from the most experienced guide staff on the river, as well as our variety of trip options including the Miracle Mile tailwater.
March 2, The weather is really starting to feel like spring, the temps will be in the high 40’s for the next few days. For those of us with cabin feaver it will feel like a heat wave! The water is clear and the fishing is heating up with the weather. Call or email any time for information and available dates.
Feb 19, North Platte Casper area now 50% ice free. Just got back from a trip on the lower river below Gov bridge, water is low, clear and ice free, and floatable down to Gov Bridge, ice conditions below Gov. Bridge are good-a litlle shlf ice but none in the river at all and clear as it gets. Just above Sechrist ramp is still jammed with ice though and so the river is NOT floatable below Gov Bridge except the short float to trappers. ALL of the upper river is open and fishing well, fish are still sluggish and weather is spotty at best.
Feb 16 Spring is just around the corner! Clients are asking so just wanting to post that we have guides ready if you want an early float trip, really only the upper river here is floatable, but with this weather the ice downstream will be gone quickly. We are starting the bulk of our spring float trips March 26 right after the spring flush is over. Directly after the flush is a great time to be here, it really triggers a lot of movement for pre-spawn rainbows and the fishing really starts getting good. If you don’t have your spring trip set up yet get your dates picked out and give us a call.
Feb 2, 2011 Best times to fish the North Platte.
Clients and newcomers always ask when the best times are to come and fish with us on the North Platte at Grey and Miracle Mile tailwaters. So I thought I would give a few late winter suggestions for people looking to book trips. March is the pre spawn month and typically the third week in March the Bureau of Rec. flushes the river below Grey Reef for a one week period, a response of fish moving up to spawn takes place directly after this flush and so starts the great spring float fishing. April – May are the big months for spawning trout and this is a great time to be here for nymph fishing, these two months are the best for just pure numbers of fish being caught as clients experience average boat days of 40-50 fish being landed to the net! June kicks off with fish dropping off the spawning beds and looking to replenish spent energy and weight, they eat readily catch rates are still very high as the hatches increase, and clients enjoy 40 fish days. During June expect to see backing at least once a day as water temps get above 50degrees and the trout are what we call red hot (fighting at their best!). July-August are by far the best dry fly months with hoppers, giant stone flies, and tricos, not to mention Yellow Sallies, Caddis etc… July and August are also in my opinion the best two months of the year for big trout being caught on streamers. Although overall numbers to the net drop off during this time period I feel the quality of the fish are better. September is a transition month and you can expect good fishing on the surface as well as streamers and nymphing, summer temps subside but expect mid 80’s for daytime highs. Fish numbers to the net are not what you see in the spring with a good day being 25-30 to the net. October – November is the big brown trout months especially the last part of Oct. and all of November, spawning brown trout and all trout in general are putting on that extra weight for the winter months, just check out some of the reports over these months and you’ll see why it is a great time to be here. Numbers increase through out the fall months and 50 plus fish days become more regular into November. Dec-Feb have a few warm days that lend itself to good fishing if your close enough to come to Casper when the weather is decent. Winter fishing is not for the faint of heart but has some nice rewards for your effort, expect catch numbers to be lower and fish to be lethargic when fighting.

Dec 5, 2010 Happy Holidays! We are booking our Grey Reef Lodge 2011 Season now, if your interested in our North Platte River fly fishing operation and need details call Grey Reef Anglers owner Jason at 307-267-2559. We hope you have a great winter and we thank you all for making our 2010 Wyoming fly fishing season a wonderful one! Take Care, and we look forward to hooking up with you for another great fly fishing season in 2011.
Nov 22 Early Winter fishing in Wyoming is red hot! Was out with cast and blast clients the past few days and the fishing has been super good. We landed 12 fish over the 20 inch mark on saturday and landed one female brown that was 24 inches. Miles and Trip both lodge clients from California braved the weather and it paid off big as they were both made beleivers of how good the North Platte River is for big trout.
Nov 10 Big Steelheader Strikes Gold! My clients today Ben, a big steelhead fishermen, and Carolyn both from Traverse City, Michigan drove straight through to the Cowboy state to catch some trout with us on the Grey Reef and Miracle Mile. Both clients struck early and often landing and breaking fish off, then on the Hollingsworth shelf Ben struck gold landing a big female brown trout. This picture just left is the 26.5 inch female brown trout just caught today! We didn’t get a chance to get the girth but had to be at least a 12-14inch girth, after doing the formula it placed the fish in the 9lb catagory. Congrats to Ben his first ever trip on the North Platte River, crazy!

On the day we had 4 double headers and more than 40 hookups, and ended up with both clients in double figures on landed fish. A lot of the fish came on a crazy leech as we call it, tied on a hook that causes the leech to twirl in the water while dead drifting, proved once again very productive. Also landed trout on the worm, scud, and midge patterns.

Nov 2 Brown Trout on the move and the 10 day forcast is incredible! Crowds are gone, the river is alive with fish eating like its thier last meal, oh and Brown trout are starting to spawn, just the recipe for some guides to get out and catch some big fish. The fishing is great and both the Mile and the Reef are fishing great. Big streamers, scuds, halfbacks, egg patterns, midges, its all working just get it down in front of those trout. This should just get even better as the water temps continue to drop, if you’ve been up here in the spring and will brave the cruddy weather then, imagine the same type of fishing but warmer temps, and fall colors. It always amazes me the people that come fishing in the cruddy spring weather but give up the best time of year, Fall! Check out our other Grey Reef and Miracle Mile tailwater fishing reports available on the drop down menu on the home page.
Oct 19-23 Fishing getting better for big fish! We have had a bit of rain here over night but water conditions remain excelllent. Bigger trout are eating more readily by the day as we have gone thru our fall dink fest period. Fishing should just keep getting better as those water temps start to drop. Might start seeing some brown trout spawning soon. Flies still producing fish for our clients are leeches, scuds in olive, and tan, trico RS2, black lazy midge, pals, and fall caddis in rusty brown. Might try swinging your caddis pattern especially toward the end of the day as trout are keying in on caddis.
Oct 14 Miracle Mile float produces great dry fly fishing! Had two boats of return clients today floating the Miracle Mile, Jim Mike and Doug all had some great fishing including an afternoon that was red hot with hopper action, thats right we took well over 20 fish all on a size 6 hopper patterns. Not too bad considering we are half way into October and have spots to get you in on Dry Fly fishing, Mike was the bread winner with a 22.5inch male brown trout that took his hopper right off the bank and just devoured it. A minute later we landed the bruiser. Nice fish Mike! We landed 16 browns in all and only one had any sort of spawn colors so I’d say we are actually a few wekks away still from any spawn activity.
Oct 13 Floated the Grey Reef and the Miracle Mile Thats right took the clients down the top 8 miles below Grey Reef today and then kicked off and headed to the Miracle Mile to float that as well. Both tailwaters fished well but the Miracle Mile by far gave us the best overall fish size. Mike caught a 22 inch rainbow and lost a fish that jumped that was much bigger! The “Mile” is very low right now, water is fairly clear, every fly we tied on worked so I’d say its safe to assume the fish are just eating everything near them, just gotta get your fly in front of them and its good. The Browns have yet to move into spawning habitat yet.
Oct 11 Wild Huns and Chukars dominate the day. Marshall and Craig and I ended my 26 day marathon stretch of guide days with a solid day of hunting wild upland birds. We had a day for the books as we chased wild huns for the majority of the day, 12 covey rises on huns with 8 birds harvested, needless to say we went through some shotgun shells. To top it all off on our final walk back to the truck the tired dogs went on solid point yet again and up comes a covey of wild chukars, my boys promptly shot and bird and we marked the covey landing again along the canyon rim. We put on the persuit and to end the day had both dogs locked up on point and both clients ended up shooting chukars that fell at least 100ft below the rim. Dietz my black lab made short work of some rather steep retrieves and we ended our day. Thanks to Marshall and Craig for there deep appreciation for truely wild bird hunting and there passion for upland hunting. You guys are simply the bes
t! Pics will be up soon.Oct 10 Cool weather brings great hunting. Our cast and Blast yesterday turned into a Blast Cast & Blast. We hunted wild huns in the am then fished the upper Grey Reef at 1pm then back after the huns in the evening. What a day we had, we ended up with a limit on huns and got into well over 50+ huns. Then we caught and kept a couple 20inch fish for our dinner. Wow wild huns and fresh grilled trout, nice combination! We have one slot left for lodge guests, great spot for Cast & Blast it is Oct 26-29. Good availability for days trips just give us a call for details.
Oct 10 Cool weather brings great hunting. Our cast and Blast yesterday turned into a Blast Cast & Blast. We hunted wild huns in the am then fished the upper Grey Reef at 1pm then back after the huns in the evening. What a day we had, we ended up with a limit on huns and got into well over 50+ huns. Then we caught and kept a couple 20inch fish for our dinner. Wow wild huns and fresh grilled trout, nice combination! We have one slot left for lodge guests, great spot for Cast & Blast it is Oct 26-29. Good availability for days trips just give us a call for details.
Oct 5-9 Cast and Blast options are limitless! Kicked off our Cast & Blast season with several groups taking advatage of some great upland bird hunting and fly fishing, as well as some light waterfowl hunting. We had a great couple days with the Dawson group who just love the western style hunting and fishing. Craig got hooked on streamers yesterday after landing several hard fighting trout in the 20inch range that ate his vanilla bugger. This after he and his partner shot their limit of rooster pheasants in the a.m. Wild chukars and Huns have been great as two days ago we had seven covey rises on Huns, a good year for that little fast flyers. These birds really are a challenge to hit even on close flushes as out clients are finding out.
Oct 4 Fishing is so awesome right now! Doug land a 24.5inch rainbow that weighed 6lbs. Way to go guys! Upper fished well today despite the Game and Fish shocking their way down. Contrary to popular belief shocking has little affect on fishing as several times I have been behind the shock boat right after they hit a hole and we still caught plenty of fish.
Oct 2,3 Lower River fishes well again. Today we had two boats down on the lower river below Bessemer Bend Bridge. Fishing was great as the Hill family enjoyed great fishing and fantastic weather. Steve started the day off with a 21inch male cuttbow that had great girth. Big fish came early in the day and then as the sun got higher and brighter we started catching smaller fish overall. Bugs that worked well, Grey Reef Chili Peppers, bead head pheasant tails, Jakes micro foam back bwo, and squirrel nymph. Only hatches to speak of were late afternoon bwo’s.
Oct 1 Fall at Grey Reef in full swing! Clients have been enjoying some just fabulous fall weather here on the North Platte River at Grey Reef. Water clarity is great weeds are not much of an issue at all and the fishing is great! Today was just a great day to out on the water enjoying these big healthy trout. The browns have not moved up yet but it won’t be long. Keep ya posted. Bird Hunters Note: I have a couple spots for november Cast and Blast, big browns and lots of wingshooting opportunities to be had, come check it out.
Sept 29 Big fish being caught everyday! Fall is great, nice cool mornings, and 80’s during the day, wait isn’t it suppose to be in the 70’s. It hit 92 degrees yesterday, yikes its September, well it sure makes enjoying the low water that much better with no wind and big fish being caught. Clients all catching big numbers of nice chunky trout. Fish today caught on red midges, leeches, scuds, bwo’s emergers, and rusty paradun. Take advantage as the fall fishing is shaping up nicely, soon big browns will be spawning, we will keep you updated. October is just about full, better call soon as most prime dates are taken.
Sept. 28 Low flows bring back awesome wade fishing! Flows on the North Platte below Grey Reef and Miracle Mile are down to 500cfs and should remain throughout the fall and into next spring. Freemont Canyon is clear and low as well. All three tailwaters are fishing great right now. Our guides have all been having huge success both nymph fishing, dry fly fishing, and streamer fishing respectively. Brown Trout have not move up yet but shouldn’t be but a couple more weeks before we start seeing some Browns spawn.
Sept. 12 North Platte River Fall Fly Fishing, No people and awesome fishing! Floated the upper 8 miles of Grey Reef today with my clients Ralph and Jim from Golden, Colorado. Nymph fishing was awesome on the leech and scud patterns. Weeds on the upper are really no factor right now, some light grass breaking up but it didn’t make any difference as my clients had 30-40 hookups by lunch time! Jim and Ralph both landed some very nice fish mixed in with some smaller younger fish. Nice to see a great year class of trout from the 2009 spring spawn, its quite evident from the numbers that we had a very successfull spawn in 09. Best patterns right now leeches, scuds, midges, trico’s. It obvious right now it doesn’t matter what you’ve got tied on for flies if you can get it in front of the trout they are eating readily. Grab your rod and get here to enjoy that crisp fall air and some fantastic fly fishing. Note: October prime dates are filling quickly, if you want in on some awesome fall fly fishing give us a call today and get booked now.
Sept. 11 North Platte River Fall Fly Fishing is awesome! Today my clients were Jeff and Steve from Denver. We floated the lower river again. Nymphing was fast and furious with lots of action, Steve had two hookups on the first hole we drifted, this fast action kept up all morning but had a lot of smaller fish, then as the day heated up we started getting into those nice 19-2oinch trout. Jeff landed a 22inch female rainbow that had to weigh at least 4lbs, it jumped 6 times and gave Jeff a real show. We ended the day with some hopper action and again Jeff landed some nice trout on the surface.
Sept 10 Fish starting to go deep. After a summer of surface action we are starting to notice a lot of fish pulling off the banks and holding in deeper water, much more like spring conditions. Weeds are disappearing on the lower river fast and the bottom is cleaning up nicely. Nymphing deep and heavy has been producing well as opposed to fishing the short rigs. Still getting some late day hoppers but only in a few places. Fall Streamer fishing is starting to pick up steam and should just get better on into October/November when those big Brown trout start to spawn. Note: October prime dates for float trips at the Grey Reef and Miracle Mile are filling up fast, if your wanting in on some great fall fly fishing you should consider getting your dates nailed down today. Most November wingshooting dates are available.
Sept. 8 Just a few hoppers left. After what will go down as the best hopper season ever here on Grey Reef we are just about done. Today my clients were Betty and Mac from Branson, Missouri. We floated down low again and nymphed most of the day except for a few spots that are still producing good action on the grasshoppers. Trout ate a variety of flies including leeches, caddis pupa, and crawdad patterns. We had around 15 or so takes on the hopper, not too bad considering the hoppers have been producing for about 6 solid weeks now. Daytime highs in the low 80’s will keep this last minute hopper fishing going into late September.
Sept 5-6 Fall is in the air, and fishing is great! Been floating the lower river lately with virtually no other fishermen around anywhere. Today we floated 16miles and only ran into one other boat and when we got to the ramp we where the only people on the water. Its so awesome in the fall, no people and the fishing is lights out. We had a very cool start to our morning and nymphed up a bunch of trout, later as the sun warmed the baks we switched to hoppers and had a great day getting trout to eat on the surface. The takes were extremely aggressive today, may have been due to water temps dropping a touch the last few days. Congrats to Bob and Rob of Regina, Canada on there biggest trout ever fly fishing. You both are great sports and really know how to enjoy a day on the water.
Sept. 3 Miracle Mile Section. Water clarity at the Mile is poor to say the least but despite water clarity issues our guides were able to pull out a good day on the river. Smaller stonefly nymphs and big scuds where the flies of choice along with a few fish caught on a small red legged grasshopper in the afternoon. A lot of smaller fish landed in the morning fallowed by some much bigger 19-22inch browns and rainbows in the afternoon. Not much at all for hatch activity at the Mile at this time.
September 1 Hatches picking up, fly fishing is awesome! Grey Reef flows have dropped to 2500cfs and the Miracle Mile has dropped to winter operating level of 500cfs. Hatches at the Grey Reef have picked up steam as clouds of Trico’s and a good fall BWO hatch is underway. Couple all this activity with a decent afternoon of grashopper activity and the fly fishing is great! Fish to pods of trout sipping Trico’s in the morning and then switch over to hoppers in the afternoon, the streamer action has been good as well. I will be at the Miracle Mile tomorrow and have a more detailed report on my return.
August 27-30 Hoppers still the Key! Over the last several days the hopper fly fishing remains the name of the game. We have started to get a consistant amount of afternoon thunderstorms and its making the hopper fishing even better. Why? Well two reason really, wind, and low light. These storms bring some higher winds and that kicks a lot of hoppers into the river and then you have the sun being blotted out by the clouds making the trout that much more aggressive on the surface, and example was yesterday as my clients Missy and Stephanie had well over 20 takes on the hopper within the first hour of fishing. Taking very nice fish as Steph landed her biggest trout ever a 5lb cuttbow that devoured her hopper on the surface. As a side note the river has dropped slightly down to 2500cfs, and if operated as usual will be dropped to 1500cfs by Sept. 1, but you never quite know what the Bureau of Rec. is going to do, hopefully we get a fall flushing flow.
August 25 GREAT HOPPER FISHING! Today my clients were Mike and Sue from San Diego, CA who were touring all kinds of fly fishing destinations. After their trip today they stated it is by far the most consistent big trout fishery they have fished. Our day started off with a lot of action early on the nymph rig and once again around 10am the grashoppers warmed up and started to get into the river making the surface action fantastic. The wind did not blow a bit and made the hopper fishing sorta hit and miss but when it was all said and done we had 20 plus on the hopper to the net with a lot of missed fish as well.
Aug 23 NORTHWIND HOPPERS!! Today my clients were Ken and Jane of Waterford, CT. We started off the day nymphing as it was Janes first day ever fly fishing, she did wonderful landing several nice cuttbows early on the crawdad worm combination. As the morning progressed a northwest wind kicked up and was pushing huge numbers of hoppers into the river. We quickly took notice as did the fish and started tieing into some of them. We had fish blowing up on the surface all around the boat and had some very impressive takes on the size 6 hoppers we were using. Congrats to Jane for breaking the 20inch mark on her first day ever fly fishing. The northwind we had today was the key as it was blowing fairly perpendicular to the banks of the river and really had pushed a lot of grasshoppers into the river.
Aug 22 BIG TROUT ON STREAMERS! Today will go down for sure as one of the better big fish days of my summer. Today my client Jim again put together quite a day as he described it as a day of pure adrenaline. To kick off his day the first trout Jim tied into was a 28″ male brown trout caught on a salt water streamer pattern. The big bruiser took the fly after the fourth attempt in a particular brown trout producing spot. Congrats Jim, what a fish! After that Jim started with the dry fly hopper and began getting take after take and landed several nice bows until he tied into one rainbow that took him to his backing and jumped end over end four feet into the air, that fish was 26 inches, what a day! Huge fish on streamers and hoppers, doesn’t get much better than that!
Aug 21 HOPPER DRY FLY FISHING IS AWESOME!! The hoppers are still thick and the trout are eating them like crazy. My return client today Jim from Denver, CO, got his first crack at the hopper fishing and man did he take advantage. Jim landed 25 or more fish all on the hopper as he was in the boat today by himself being guided. Jim had a lot of fish blow up on his hopper as well as some real suttle takes. The trout are feeding on top and its great! Take advantage as this may only last for a few more weeks. Talked to some other fly fishermen floating on their own at the take out and sounded like the fishing for them was very slow. One great advantage to taking a guided trip is that the guide has been out their everyday and knows where the fish are rising to hoppers and what hoppers are working best, guides are not for everyone but if your just wanting to catch fish and learn the river its a great start. The hopper fishing isn’t as easy as it was two weeks ago and it takes some veteran knowledge of the river and current trends to put a day together like my client Jim had today.
Aug 20 Grasshoppers everywhere! My clients today were Jamie & Jason from Riverton, WY. We started our morning off nymph fishing and the trout where a bit slow to wake up but about an hour into our day Jamie landed some nice rainbows to get us off and running. Most of the fish they caught were eating the crawdad (crayfish) pattern on the dead drift. Around noon did the switch to hoppers and it produced several explosive takes right away with a nice cutthroat caught by Jason. We spent the remainder of our day throwning big hoppers and the fishing was decent. Some spots that hadn’t been producing produced fish and other spot that normally produce didn’t. Guides call this spotty, but by days end we had 25 plus takes on the hopper with a lot of missed fish as well.
Aug 18 Great Hopper Fishing! The wind plus hot weather is helping keep the grasshoppers active early and the dry fly fishing is remaining excellent! The Alaknak Hopper has been producing the best results here as of late trailed with the red legged grasshopper pattern size 10. Most the fish are not taking the bigger hoppers now and are wised up and looking for natural sizes and colors. We’ve had some real nice brown trout taken as of late on the surface and these conditions will last into September if weather continues to be hot and dry. North Platte River Flows remain steady and the water temps are nice and cool.
August 15 Hoppers and Brown Trout! My clients today were Amanda and Jonathan from Sheridan, WY. I gave them the two water tour and we fished two seprate stretches of water in the same day. We took some nice brown trout early and often on the double dry fly hopper rig. After a few hours things slowed down and we switched to streamer flies. Immediately we had action on the streamer and landed some nice Browns and one very fat 20inch rainbow that had a balloon type stomach. Switched to floating the Mile and got on with some very dirty water conditions, we caught a few smaller trout early in the float and then the mid day bite just shut off on the surface. My clients stuck with it and Amanda got a nice 21inch female rainbow on the red legged hopper pattern to end the day. Great clients and good fishing.
August 13 Hoppers get sprayed and infiltrate river! Clients today were Liz and the Kelly’s from Galveston Texas. We put on late again so the grasshoppers had a chance to warm up. Had some not so good beginners luck early with several surface takes on the dry fly but not many hook ups. We noticed upon putting in that the yellow crop duster was spraying the adjacent alfalfa fields for grassshoppers. With that happening the river in a matter of minuites was just covered with live and dying grasshoppers. The most grasshoppers I think I’ve ever witnessed in a river at once, the trout were going bizzerk on the surface blowing up all over the place and just were gorging themsleves on the hoppers. We managed to catch some on top but with all the naturals floating around it made for some harder fishing for a while. Toward the end of our float the hoppers thinned a little and things got slightly easier but all in all a kinda tough day with beginners and all that food everywhere.
August 12 Hopper Fishing! My clients today were CK and son Ravi from Denver. We floated Government Bridge to Bessemer Bend Bridge and fly fished hoppers all day. Put in kinda late and had several goods takes early, even had a fish try to eat CK’s hopper fly right under my oar, he was wanting that hopper bad. We had some lulls here and there but counted up at the end of the day and had over 35 takes on the hopper pattern. Ravi managed to finally catch a trout that every past client has missed in one particular spot on the river. Funny how some of the best fishermen got bested by a 9 year old. Way to go Ravi! All in all a good day, could have been better with some better fly placement but thats what we are out here to do is get fishermen better.
August 11 Brown Trout on Hoppers! Today my clients again were Doug and Gary, we started a little later letting
those hoppers warm up. Put the boat in and Gary caught a nice brown right out of the gate despite dirty water conditions on the Miracle Mile. We floated the Miracle Mile and I’ve never had this happen but we caught only one rainbow all day, all of our trout were brown trout which was just fine by me. Beautiful Brown Trout with nice big red and black spots and gold tummies. Doug had one brown in particular eat his size 6 hopper a record 4 times in a row before finally hooking the twenty inch fish, it was funny. Our best fly again was the hopper, but most of the fish ate a smaller size 10 hopper more like the size of the natural grasshoppers. Thanks to Doug & Gary for being great clients!
August 10 Hoppers!! Hoppers!! Those big trout just can’t get enough of that big grasshopper. Clients today were Doug and Gary from Michigan, long time fly fishing partners of 60+years. After a day of fly fishing big dry flies they stated that this North Platte River is the best river fishing for trout they had ever experienced. Quite a statement considering all the places they have fly fished in all those years. These boys really had fun with each other and there was some major ribbing going on as each of them missed there fare share of big hopper strikes. We had on the day several doubles on dry flies and all in all just agreat day! These trout just keep getting bigger and stronger as the hoppers are just thick.
August 9 Dry Fly Hopper Fishing is great at Grey Reef! My clients today were Johnathan and Amanda from Sheridan, Wyoming. We floated the Grey Reef and had a fantastic hopper dry fly day with lots of big fish to the net. Johnathan kicked off the day with the first hopper take and the trout just exploded on his dry fly, he landed the trout a 21inch female cuttbow. Amanda was the big fish catcher with two fish over 5lbs hooked and one landed that measured out at 24inches all on the dry fly. Doesn’t get much better, BIG TROUT on size 6 hopper patterns. I hope this lasts for another month!
Aug 8 Took a venture to the Miracle Mile today with a single. We floated the entire stretch into Pathfinder Res. and caught trout on hopper patterns including several nice brown trout. The hopper fishing was real slow until the end of the day but the last hour made our day with several fish over the twenty inch mark taken on dry flies. The water conditions are horrrible as a recent storm has the Mile looking like chocolate milk, however Grey Reef remains clear and cool.
Aug 7 Anyone like catching big trout on hopper dry flies! My clients today were Adam and Carolyne from Estes Park. Adam a local Estes Park guide had to come get some big grey reef rainbows on hoppers. The hoppers started hitting slowly around 10am but really was sort of on and off all day. We had well over 40 takes on the surface and Carolyne was the real bread winner as she landed just about everything that ate her dry fly. Meanwhile Adam was completely snake bit as he had 8 takes in a row with out getting a hookup. Carolyne ended her day with a nice male cuttbow that was 22inches and inthe 4lb range. Nice going!
Aug 6 Hoppers! Hopper fishing remains good to excellent depending on the river section. Today my clients were Paul and his folks from Alabama, roll tide! These guys were real novice fishermen but despite that they really knocked the fish dead on hopper dry flies. We had 25-30 fish to the net all on hoppers. Big fish Big dry flies kinda tuff to beat. Hot dry conditions should keep this hopper action going well into the fall.
August 4 Hoppers and Tricos! The last two cool nights in a row here on the North Platte River have triggered the trico hatch in a big way. Now we start the morning off fly fishing a hopper dry fly with either a trico emerger or trico dry and its working great. Tricos, despite being very small always get these big fish up rising on the surface early in the morning. The great thing now is by the time the trout stop rising to tricos the heat of the day has arrived and the hopper action picks up, a great combination for dry fly enthusiasts. Streamer fishing remains good to great depending on the stretch of river and time of day. North Platte River flows remain stable and water conditions are great. Just a reminder to those considering a float trip in the area, our Grey Reef Lodge is one of only two lodges in the area that has private North Platte River Access that is within walking distance of the lodge, our lodge being right on the banks of the river has access less than 50yards away, complete with trophy pond and private boat ramps. All this private access available for our lodge guests and day trip clients.

August 2 Big North Platte River trout on Hoppers all day! My clients today were Steve and John, long time bird hunting clients that finally came up for some fly fishing. I was so happy they came at this time of year as I knew what they were in for with the hopper fishing being so good. We started the day off nymph fishing as Steve had never fly fished. We caught several smaller fish on pine squirrel leaches and beady leeches. At 10am the hoppers had warmed up and it was time to throw dry flies. We switch rods and didn’t float 50yards before Steve hooked and landed a 20inch cuttbow on the hopper. That started it off and as John said we didn’t go 10 minutes without a fish on. It ended up being a day that couldn’t have been scripted any better as John hooked and landed a 23inch male cuttbow just across from the boat ramp to end the day!

July 31 Floated the Miracle Mile section today and the hopper fishing was fantastic. All four guides out today had great success despite the fact that three of the guides all had clients that had never fly fished a day in thier lives. Its great to see good guides teach fly fishing and the pure joy it is to watch them turn someone into a real fly fishing fanatic. The afternoon hopper fishing frenzy helped the matter as clients were able thr throw size 6 hopper patterns and catch fish. It was a lot of fun watching the trout just explode on the big dry fly. Gotta love that showy splash of a hopper rise. A special thanks to the Waits gang for a special couple days.

July 30 Hopper fishing was great again today! Had 4 guide boats all on the lower river and everyone had great success throwing hoppers to the banks and catching nice fat healthy trout. Several 22inch fish landed on the hopper and one 23inch fish landed on a size 2 white streamer in the narrows. Get here now if you want in on some great dry fly action on the North Platte River.

July 29 North Platte River Hopper fishing is awesome right now! We’ve been talking about it and it has begun, the year of the hopper fishing on the North Platte River from Grey Reef Dam to Town is on fire! We’ve been getting fish on grass hopper patterns periodically now for a couple weeks but today it just exploded. Floated the lower river again and fly fished hoppers for the entire section. The nice thing is the fish are not picky as we were throwing a size 6 hopper with a smaller size 10 hopper below it and the trout were rising and splashing down on the size 6 hopper three to one. Nothing quite like catching our big trout on big sloppy hoppers. I can’t wait to get back out there with my clients tomorrow and do it again!
July 25 Our North Platte River Fly Fishing Guides took our group of clients on a lower Grey Reef Float Trip again today. By utilizing our private boat ramp right at the lodge this put our gang out ahead of everyone and had the river entirely to ourselves. Streamer fishing remains the ticket for big healthy hard fighting trout as client Les was todays bread winner landing several big rainbows on the streamer. The entire group of clients are now addicted to streamer fishing after our guide staff showed them the techniques for success. Its nice to see fly fishing clients get turned on to an aspect of their sport they have yet to explore. Streamer selection was more broad today as several colors and patterns produced trout including Sauls Sword Fish and Ryan’s Red Head Crawdad, patterns you won’t find in any fly shop as these are tried and true patterns tied by our guides.

July 24 Our crew of guides all floated the lower Grey Reef today to Bessemer Bridge. The streamer fishing was the best I’ve seen it so far this year. All the boats we had out caught big fish on streamers and lots of them. George and Steve in my boat were thrilled to have the excitement of getting to watch numerous trout run up from 5-10ft away and gobble their streamer flies in the clear water. I even got to watch one rainbow eat a streamer right off my oar, it was a lot of fun. Steve had the unfortunate luck of having a big brown trout hookup but get off before we could get him to the net, better luck next time Steve. Water flows at Grey Reef have been dropped to 3600cfs and is now stable with very little fluctuation. If your wanting a great time to fish – its now!

July 23 We had 3 boats out today at the Miracle Mile and the fishing was excellent. The bug selection throughout the day changed slightly but the fish just kept eating all day long. Luke had a client comment to me saying it was the best day fly fishing he’s ever had and had lost count on how many trout he put to the net. Several times throughout the day we had three boats all with fish on at the same time. We concluded our day with 3 consecutive trout over 21 inches and Les in Nates boat landed a 6lb rainbow to complete a truely blessed day! In the morning the fish were eating olive scuds, worms, and peeking caddis. The afternoon fish were taking a hothead golden stone nymph, with a mint bead caddis pupa as a dropper. We did also get two fish on hoppers and noticed a few hoppers getting into the river, it’s gonna be a great hopper season.

July 22 All our guides reporting in today with great fishing. Really a great time of year to be here, we are getting fish on dry flies streamers and nymphs everyday now. Flows are dropping slowly at the Grey Reef and flows are stable at the Miracle Mile. Its nice to know that as our water levels drop our water temps also drop, this is because of the fact that the release of water is strictly coming off the bottom of the reservoirs not the tubes on the sides. Unlike a lot of fisheries already suffering form high water temps we are NOT. Temps remain in the upper fifties to low sixties depending on time of day and sectuion of river, all of which are great temps for trout! I’ll have a report on the Miracle Mile tomorrow as we have guides there now.

July 21 Fly fishing on the North Platte River right now is great, flows remain stable and water is very clear and cold. All our guides are catching fish on streamers and a few on hoppers and of coarse nymphing is solid. Did some fishing on my own for just an hour or so down just below the lodge in my favorite North Platte River back channel. Snuck down to the water and noticed how big the grasshoppers are getting, some are flying into the river. So I grabbed my rod and tied on a club sandwhich hopper pattern. Didn’t take long and had me a nice cuttbow on the hopper. It won’t be much longer now and the hopper fishing is gonna be on fire. We have some weekdays open now for trips, weekends in July are gone but August we have some openings for lodge guests as well as day trips, give us a call for latest updates and fishing conditions at 307-267-2559.

July 18 Floated the lower Grey Reef today to Bessemer, the morning started out very slow, but we switch to streamers after a couple hours and it was working right away as Jenn hooked and landed several nice healthy rainbows. Jenn then threw streamer up on the bank and before she could even strip her line a 21inch male cuttbow attacked her fly and took off. It was all she could do to just hold on to the fly rod. Two hundred yards downstream later she landed the trout, we measured with the soft tape and its girth was 13inches! Yikes! Great trout Jenn! The rest of the day Jenn just kept catching trout on streamers while her husband Bill just watched and got outfished 5 to 1. Sorry Bill better luck next time. Water is really clear all the way to town, maybe as clear as I’ve ever seen it in the summer, makes for great streamer action.

July 17 Picked up my clients at the lodge today and headed to the Miracle Mile for our float trip. We had cloudy conditions and no wind, we had great fishing in the morning mainly nymphing, landing a lot of nice rainbows and browns in that 19-21 inch range. My clients Jenn & Bill both agreed that our fishing success added to the fact that there were no other boats out on the water just made for an awesome day. Scott joined us prior to lunch and had just landed a 25inch rainbow on an olive flashback scud. Congrats Scott, thats two trout over 25inches in less than a week! We switched to streamers and dry flies in the afternoon, and Bill lost two very nice Brown Trout right at the boat, the one fish actually ate his streamer right at the boat, so we all got to see how big he was. Sorry Bill. We did manage a couple hookups on dries but really wasn’t much of a hatch all day.

July 15 Flows have dropped considerably at Grey Reef now at 3000cfs, remember we were at over 7200cfs at one point. Water levels dropping equates to lower water temps as the draw below the dam will come off the bottom of the reservoirs. Took a temp reading at the Miracle Mile last night and temps went down 5 degrees overnight, despite that fishing was excellent! Cool night last night has the tricos starting to hatch here at Grey Reef, noticed a few last week but really starting to get more now. I was at the Miracle Mile late yesterday until dark and had some good luck at dusk floating a big dry fly hopper, ended up with several on hoppers and some on streamers at dark, no monsters this time but just solid 20inch fish, mostly brown trout. Hatches on the North Platte River are now Tricos, PMD’s, Yellow Sallies, Crane Flies, Sulphur’s, CADDIS, almost everything, its great, oh and the Grass Hoppers are at adult stage now. If you seek solitude, fantastic fly fishing, and energetic fun loving fishing fools, then Grey Reef Anglers is your place. Call us for the latest river conditions, hatches, and fly fishing news.
July 11 Dry Fly Fishing and Streamers are producing big trout on the North Platte River right now. Don’t get me wrong plenty of nice fish nymphing but if you can get big fish on the surface its all that much better. Over the weekend we had boats out each day Sat. and Sun. that hooked trout over 25inches both days! One Brown trout in particular in my boat that pushed that 26inch mark, what a fish! Those big boys don’t come everyday but we probably land as many trout over 25inches as anyone in the country, excluding the trout that run out of the Great Lakes into various rivers to spawn. If big trout are what your after, we’ve got the rivers for you. We have the private access, lodge, and guide work ethic to put you on the best fly fishing around. Our guides go further and work harder so you know your experiencing the best fly fishing the North Platte River has to offer period. Our guides don’t watch thier watch, won’t skip good water, and will take you to stretches of the North Platte River not many other outfitters will even fish.
July 9 My clients today were Roger & Kent, both very good fly fishermen. They booked an ALL DAY- daylight to dark, 16 hour Trophy Trout Fly Fishing Trip. Our day started off floating Grey Reef at 5am chucking streamers in the early morning light. Both clients landed a few trout each and then Roger had a huge rainbow snatch his big streamer out of the current and hookup. A second or two later Roger was heartbroken as the fish broke off his 14lb test leader, YIKES! The next leg of our trip found us at the Miracle Mile section throwing big GOLDEN STONE DRY FLIES. The DRY FLY fishing was AWESOME! Several big trout landed and even a couple more break offs. We concluded our day with a second drift down the Miracle Mile, this time hitting the canyon walls with dry flies and streamers until dark. Both Roger and Kent landed big Browns on dry flies as well as streamers. GREAT WEATHER, GREAT CLIENTS, GREAT FLY FISHING, WHAT MORE COULD YOU ASK FOR!!

July 8 Was back to the Miracle Mile today, Dave and his son Ryan joined up to fly fish on Ryans birthday. We had some early success on the surface with big dry flies, but the cold last night had most insects hunkered down, it was 38 degrees when I woke up. As the day went on the bugs warmed up and so did the fishing, we ended the day finishing with a lot of fish hooked up but not as many to the net. Novices are great because they don’t care if they land everything they hook they are just really enjoying their day on the water. TROPHY TRIP TOMORROW, BIG STREAMERS, AND WE ARE GOING TO FLOAT THREE DIFFERENT SECTIONS OF RIVER IN THE SAME DAY! – KEEP YOU POSTED.

July 7 Flows are dropping fast, the river has dropped over a foot in the last 24hours. My clients today were Chris and Mellissa from Georgia, we floated down below Sechrist and the fishing was great! They both lost about 15 fish each in just a few short hours, and Chris had a 5lb rainbow break off right at the boat. After they both landed several rainbows we stopped and wade fished a new sand bar the current has created. It paid off nicely with fish all over the shelf, including some rising trout. Hatches today were strong with good numbers of pmd’s and sallies. Back to my camp and the Mile tomorrow, will have a report on the stones.

July 6 Grey Reef flows steady at 5500, Miracle Mile has now dropped to dry fly #8, bead head squirrel nymph, hot head leech, soft hackle sally, and pmd epoxy back. Fish are being found suspended as well as on the bottom, a lot of fish moving into that sally water up on top the shelf, in fast current. This should continue to get better as the Yellow Sally and pmd hatches continue.

July 5 Took a day off and hooked up with fly fishing guides Ryan and Wayne up on the Big Horn River in Montana. We floated the Big Horn today, it was nice to fish some different water, we took fish on streamers and nymph rigs. Fly fishing on the Big Horn River was good up until the last couple hours and then it just died, the huge numbers of hatching Yellow Sallyt Stone Flies helped as we landed several nice brown trout as well as those bug eating rainbows, fish where healthy and hard fighting. Its always interesting to see how other guides do it on there home water. Thanks to Ryan and Wayne for a great day on the Big Horn!

July 4 Happy Independence Day! THANK YOU to all service men and women serving on our soil and across the world, you make a sacrafice many of us could not make. Deep Military Discounts to anyone who has recently served in Iraq or Afghanistan.

July 3 My clients today where Neil & Ken a father son combo fly fishing trip. Our day in one word was as my clients put it, spectacular! The best fly fishing day they’ve ever had, according to them. We started the day using dry flies and the trout where eating on the surface with reckless abandon. We probably hooked 50 fish before lunch, un real! Ken ended up landing a 23” brown on the dry fly and then later in the day a 24” Yellowstone cutthroat on a caddis pattern. Pictures will be up soon. Neil was excited for his son to say the least. The afternoon slowed a bit but we did continue picking up fish on dries as we floated down river. What can I say, if I had to pick a time of year to get here and fish, this is it. These are the times I have to chuckle at all those guys that think the North Platte River has no dry fly fishing. Ha! Call us at 307-267-2559

July 1 Flows at Grey Reef and the Miracle sections of the North Platte River continue to drop about 250cfs a day, the fishing is outstanding, dry flies, streamers, nymphing, just pick your style, all are producing. Each day has its own period where one technique is better than the other, but to get all three every day is just a real treat as a guide, and clients are loving it. Hatches are caddis, yellow sally stone flies, crane flies, pmd’s, sulphur mayflies.

June 30 Dry Fly Fishing here on the North Platte River right now is getting better day by day, daily hookups around 20 or so trout on the dry fly between two guys. We are filling the in between time nymphing or chucking streamers for trophy trout. Took a little evening float trip on Grey Reef last night just for fun and fly fished streamers down through the Narrows to Bessemer Bend Bridge. We had good success early but then as the evening set in streamer fishing was slow, not much moving on the surface either. Flows are dropping fast, the Miracle Mile below Kotes Dam went down a 1000cfs just overnight, inflow to Seminole Res. now all the way down to 4481cfs. As river flows drop I expect the dry fly fishing to get even better, especially combined with the big up and coming grasshopper hatch. I was out walking the grass along the banks and there are hundreds of grasshoppers per square foot that just explode under your feet, the baby hoppers are only about a half inch long now, but should be to adult stage by the middle of July, I can’t wait!

June 28 Water conditions are clear and cool as flows at the Grey Reef and the Miracle Mile are dropping slowly, flows should be back to normal summer levels possibly by weeks end as flows into Seminole are dropping every day. Hatches are getting stronger by the day and the fly fishing is great. Give us a call for latest updates and openings for fly fishing and bird hunting trips. 307-267-2559

June 27 Dry Fly Fishing remains the name of the game here on the North Platte River. In those few places the dry flies are not working we are catching lots of trout nymphing. Streamer fishing remains good especially under the full moon and should just get better as water temps increase. Had boats at the Miracle Mile yesterday and fishing was good. Both Grey Reef and the “Mile” have good hatch activity now, with pale morning duns, yellow sally stone flies, various sulfur may flies, caddis etc… A special thanks to Pete and Deb for a great time at the river last night. Give us a call for latest updates and availabilty on a Wyoming guided fly fishing trip.

June 24 What can I say, the weather is awesome, and the dry fly and streamer fly fishing is fantastic. We are hammering fish on dry flies below all the islands and anyplace you can find a lot of overhanging brush, which right now isn’t hard to find. Flows at both the Miracle Mile and Grey Reef should remain stable and are in tune with the inflow that Seminole Res. is receiving. Right now the Seminole Inflow is 7500cfs, both the Mile and the Reef are just over 7000cfs. So there is just a little bit extra coming in than going out, now we just hope we don’t get any big thunderstorms. Let us know how your summer is going, we’ll keep you up to date on latest conditions and availability.

June 20 – GREAT DRY FLY FISHING is here! That’s right, yesterday my client spent the day on the North Platte River throwing dry flies for trout and it was awesome! We started the day off throwing streamers and in the first ten minutes had three fish to the net with several other fallows. We would have stuck with streamers but we then noticed a couple splashes up on the banks and changed to a size 8 hopper dry fly pattern. The next 4 hours was spent throwing hoppers and catching trout. All added up we had around 20 hookups on the dry fly and countless fish that would come up to the surface and bump the fly, but not commit. Around 3 the dry fly fishing sputtered out and we went back to streamers, we hooked several more healthy trout and then at the second to last hole of the day my client hooks into a big rainbow on the streamer. Five minutes later he landed a 24inch long male rainbow that had a 13.5 inch girth on the soft tape! It ended up being the last fish of the day, what a way to end it!

June 18 Flows here on Grey Reef continue to rise, while flows at the Miracle Mile have dropped significantly over the past few days. Runoff is certainly winding down as guides in the Saratoga area are claiming clear water conditions and lower flows. Both Grey Reef and the Miracle Mile are fishing good, with clear water conditions as well, and clients are landing lots of trout. DRY FLY FISHING is heating up, we’ve had a couple good days already, give us a call for the latest dry fly and river conditions.

June 16 Fishing is great and the water clarity is good. Just got off the river, we floated Grey Reef to Lusby today. My clients today were Bob & Donna from California, here touring Wyoming. They both have fished the San Juan River and the Green River and were very impressed with the Grey Reef and the size of trout we were catching. They said these trout are by far the largest trout in comparison to other places they have fished. We had a solid half day hooking 20-25 trout mostly on a San Juan Worm and red midge. We also caught fish on bead head caddis, and yellow sally nymphs. Stomach samples remain the same as the trout are eating a variety of things including leeches and earth worms. Don’t let the high water scare you off, some of our best fishing is during high water, and the river gives up some real big fish during these times.

June 15 Grey Reef cleared up nicely and is quickly back to great fishing conditions, hopefully this is the last of the big rains, it would be nice to have the river clear up and stay clear so everyone is not packed in on the upper 10miles. Fish at Grey Reef are still eating earth worms as well as , caddis pupa, red midge larva, leeches, scuds, pmd & sally nymphs. Despite high water conditions our clients are experiencing great days on the water with lots of hookups and fish to the net. We have some openings, if your considering a fly fishing float trip give us a call and we will fill you in.

Note: Get your reservation in now for the Dry fly season, July is getting full, if you want your spot you should get your dates booked now for the Golden Stone Fly Hatch.

Upland Bird Hunting: We now have only two openings available for our September Sage Grouse season. Call for available dates.
june 13 Hooked up with long time friend Scott from Nebraska today and we headed off to the Miracle Mile. We got to the “Mile” and got a quick overlook of the amazingly high water, and decided on a safe launching point for the drift boat. We ended up putting in on the long straight away coming out of the canyon. I told Scott that with these high water levels the fishing was either gonna be amazingly good or just flat horrible. So we shoved off and got to the first island, that by the way is completly under water, and anchored the boat to wade fish. Scott and I discussed the fact that with the river ripping like it was that the trout were going to hold up in any slow water they could find. So we fished the back side of the island in some slack water, Scott immediately hooked up as did I, a double right out of the gate! The next four hours of fly fishing maybe the most productive nymph fishing I’ve ever witnessed, in over 15 years of fly fishing. Scott and myself hooked up over 60 trout! Too many doubles to count and we estimated we landed between 35-40 fish in just under three hours. I was shocked at how eager the trout were to eat. We did land several nice browns, but we had two fish in particular break off 2X tippet, one of which we got to see and was a trout well over the 25inch mark. We continued to float the river, which is running at a whopping 13000cfs, oh by the way I was wearing a life jacket for the first half the day. Every soft spot we stopped at fished just like the first with 15-20 fish being hooked at each spot, we did however get our butts kicked in one spot where we didn’t catch any fish despite them rising everywhere we looked. We took stomach samples and as expected the trout were eating earth worms. We caught fish on San Juan Worms, Neo’s Golden Stone Nymph, Rubber legged Prince Nymph, and the Hot Head Leech.

June 12 If your planning a visit to Wyoming for hunting antelope, mule deer, elk, or moose and would like to combine that trip with a fly fishing float trip or a bird hunting trip let us know and we can coordinate a trip to fit your Wyoming big game hunting schedule.

June 11 Flows are changing hourly, trout are eating everything in site, Its just impressive the flows we are seeing, whats more impressive is how good the fishing is despite the historic high water. We’ll have boats at the Miracle Mile today, I’ll have pictures posted soon! 10,000cfs here we go! 17,000cfs coming into Seminole, should peak in a couple days. For the latest updates give us a call at 307-267-2559

June 10 North Platte River fly fishing below Grey Reef was excellent today despite the increased water flows. We had 4 boats out and everyone was catching fish. Congrats to Tyler and his client, they landed a real nice brown trout over 21inches. For those of you who do not know the river only has about 2 percent brown trout total in the section we were fishing. So way to go guys. With the high water levels the fish seem to be eating almost everything, but I noticed every fish we took stomach pumps from had earth worms in them. Consequently the guys were getting most of the fish on a San Juan Worm. We also caught fish on rock worms, red lazy midges, split foam backed pmd’s, and the wicked impailer. The river was blown out from the bridge downstream as both Bear Creek and Bolton Creek are puking after the recent rains, should clear up in a couple days. Hey Orest when you got it, you got it and you can’t turn it off baby!!

June 8 Flows have been bumped up to over 4000cfs here at the Grey Reef, the Miracle Mile is now at nearly 7000cfs. There is over 14,000cfs coming into Seminole Res. making this a great year for water. Don’t be shy of the water though, we have good water clarity and the fishing is great! All this water is creating great new riffles and seems and the fish are gorging themselves. Swinging leeches off the banks trailed with a caddis or yellow sally pattern is producing on the Grey Reef.

June 7 PMD’s are starting to hatch as well as some larger yellow sally stoneflies. We have some dry fly fishing taken place in certain areas. Fishing remains good to excellent depending on where and when your on the river. Our weekend trips were all great with the exception of Sunday morning being slow. The weather is stable and water clarity is excellent for Grey Reef and the Miracle Mile. Float fishing seems to be the answer as I talked to several wade fisherman who struggled most the day with the higher water conditions. With runoff across the west in full swing keep in mind our tail water fisheries are NOT muddy and fishing is excellent.

June 6 Floated a shorter drift today only a half day morning trip. The morning started off ok with a few fish hooked but was fairly slow until about 11 or so, then the fish starting eating everything in site. The father son client combo today enjoyed the fact that the day ended with a bang hooking fish just about every spot we hit. Pumped the stomachs of a few fish and they had either nothin at all or a huge mix of things including, leeches, red midge larva, big scuds, rainbow fry, snails, bwo’s, and pmd nymphs. Are best fly was the leech and red midge larva.

June 5 My clients who are on their way to Yellowstone stopped and took a drift trip today. CK and his 9yr old son jumped in the drift boat, this was thier first ever fly fishing drift trip. We hooked some big trout right away but they had a hard time landing these big fish, as they jumped and broke off several trout before CK’s son hooked a rainbow on the crawdad pattern and fought him for several hundred yards and them landed him. Ravee was excited and thrilled, it was the largest trout he’d ever caught. We floated until almost dark tonight and landed several big fish all on crawdads. Very nice caddis hatch came off late but no real risers to speak of.

June 3 Put on the river below Grey Reef way late today, started at 1:30 but had the river to ourselves. Trout are still holding in slow water, we caught fish on leeches, pmd’s, and red midges. Water clarity is great and the fishing was good. We landed almost everything we hooked which is rare, the trout are gaining the weight back they lost during the spawn and are looking good. Landed several fish over the 20inch mark, all cuttbows and rainbows. I love this time of year, NO SPRING CROWDS, WATER IS CLEAR, SUMMER FISHING IS AWESOME!! Give us a call and we’ll get you locked in for a float trip.

May 31 Its real evident that if your out fishing the Grey Reef with a guide right now your catching fish and doing well, the people that are fishing on there own without a guide are struggling to catch fish. Knowledge of the rivers’ topography is a big plus, and most seasoned guides have this but even some guides who have been here the past 4-5years have never seen flows at 3500cfs like we have now, so booking with a veteran is your best bet. If your coming out on your own you might consider a guided day first before fishing on your own, you may be surprised at what your missing out on.

May 30 Had two boats floating at the Miracle Mile today and the fly fishing was awesome! We had 35-40 hook ups with 23 to the net! The Rose group again surprised us with the number of hookups they had, but despite all the hookups had a little trouble landing all thier fish. All in all a great day on the water. The high flows (4800cfs) at the Miracle Mile is making for some great boating as the islands are vacant of fisherman and we have them all to ourselves. Big browns were hooked by both boats and many 20-21inch rainbows made the net. Fish were really keying in on pmd’s and bwo patterns as well as the old stand by san juan worm.

May 29 The Grey Reef section of the North Platte fished very well today. Trout ate early and often as we had the Rose group out from Alabama, the ladies had a great morning and congrats to Angela on her first fly fishing day ever she had 5 nice rainbows to the net by lunch. The boys took over in the afternoon and hooked a bunch of fish but as Bill put it these fish fight hard and don’t give up as they lost a lot of fish after the initial hookup. We fished two flies all day and never switched, the fishing is great! Get here now!

May 28 Floated the Miracle Mile today with good results. Some fish were up rising later in the day and we tried dry flies but had little action. A lot of fish on the edges so wade fishing was great. Flows are at 4800 and as high as ever. Water is nice and clear and fish were eating our flies readily. Caught browns and rainbow trout on golden stone nymphs, red midges, scuds, eggs, worms, and rubber legged prince nymphs.

May 27 Water flows are up and the fishing is great! Had a slow start to our morning today but things picked up around ten. Lots of big fish on big flies. Nice to use big bugs on a river that is typically a small fly river. We caught the majority of our fish on size 12 and 14 pmd nymphs, also had great success dead drifting a certain crawdad pattern. Thanks to Fred the Remington firearms man and his son Mark for an enjoyable day! Off to chase fish on dry flies tomorrow, I’ll have a report soon.

May 24 Floated the Miracle Mile today, with long time client Scott from Nebraska, fishing was really great in the morning and slower in the afternoon, wind didn’t help in the afternoon as it kicked up to at least 40mph with rain and snow mixed. Scott did however manage to hit it right as he took fish on a dry fly, stimi pattern. Dry fly fishing should start to pick up here as the weather begins to become more summer like. Flows at the Mile are 4000cfs and fish are obviously on the edges, at these flows wading can tough so be careful.

May 23 Fishing below Grey Reef today was productive, again the mornings seem a little slower but we managed about 15 hookups prior to our lunch break. The afternoon was just crazy, one spot would fish lights out hooking 10-15 fish and then the next spot we would get 1 or 2. Trout caught today were primarily on a bwo emerger, and rs2’s.

May 20 River is muddy especially from Gov. Bridge downstream Gonna be a day at least before conditions improve. I expect by Saturday conditions should be a go for fishing below the bridge but only if things dry up fast. Keep ya posted.

May 19 Flows below Grey Reef Dam were turned up again today adding to the rising flow is two days of rain, flows now are 2340cfs, everything below Bessemer Bridge is blown out. Hopefully Eagle Creek doesn’t start running red, if it does we will be blown out from the Grey Reef Dam down stream entirely. Call us for on the river updates.

May18 Flows below Grey Reef were bumped up today, looks like 1800cfs. Water clarity is still good. We have 1 room available at the lodge for Sat night and fishing this Sunday.

May 17 We had 4 boats out today on the North Platte River, all four floated Limmer to Sechrist. Fishing was tremendous, lots of big accrobatic rainbows to keep our attention. No slow periods at all. Trout were eating mint caddis larva, pmd’s, yellow sallie nymphs, and midges. We had a 40 fish day and were off the water by 3! I have to say this year at Grey Reef might be the best overall fish size I’ve seen in about 7 years, really nice to see the size come back to what it once was.

May16 Fly fishing the North Platte River over the weekend has been outstanding, back on the river for the next few days, fish are eating midges in the morn and bwo’s in the afternoon. Weathers great, bring on the t-shirts and teevas!

May 14 Floated the Miracle Mile section of the North Platte river today and the fishing was great, and weather was even better. My client Mike landed around 20 fish with one very nice brown trout and a 23” rainbow! The big fish of the day escaped him though. Mike hooked up and brought a huge rainbow to the surface and just about the time we got close with the boat the trout came unhooked. Yet again another big fish gets away. Huge BWO hatch today, even the seagulls got in on the feast. If your interested in a trip gives a call and we can fill you in on all the details of a North Platte River Adventure.

May 13 Our latest float trips on the Grey Reef and Miracle Mile have blessed our fly fisherman with some big trout. We have broken the 25inch mark twice already on the season and been just under that mark on several other fish. Fly selection on the Miracle Mile seems to change daily but the trout are certainly holding tight to the bottom. Flows at the Miracle Mile are high and floating has been the ticket for success. Give us a call today and we’ll get you locked in for a great time!

May 10 Fishing below Grey Reef was great today. My clients were real warriors putting up with some cold rainy weather but it paid off with big dividends as they both caught several trout over the twenty inch mark and Hugh from Washington landed a 23” cuttbow. With the girth on that fish we estimated 4-5 lbs. Way to go Hugh you earned it today! Note: I had some clients move dates and I now have the weekend of May 22, 23 open.

May 8 Floated from Lusby to Limmer today, never even encountered another boat it was great. For the first time this spring our morning fishing was much better than the afternoon. My clients are going to enjoy thier dinner tonight as they kept a couple trout for themselves, felt kinda strange keeping a couple fish, haven’t had anyone keep a fish in a long time. Anyway weather was just great NO WIND, beautiful day!! Fish seem to really be off the redds and back into the deeper water. We caught fish on worms, bwo’s, pmd barr emerger, scuds, and red midge’s. Pumped the stomachs on some fish we caught below government bridge and all the fish had pmd’s and bwo’s in them with a few midges mixed in. Water level of the river was dropped overnight last night looks like 800cfs.

May 4 Just had a guide partner call me and they caught a 26inch male rainbow estimated 8-9lbs out of the mud hole below grey reef. What a fish, congrats!! Water conditions from grey reef to casper are excellent. Water below Gov. Bridge is great and Bates creek and Bolton creek are done puking finally.

May 3 Just look at our posts for the past weeks worth of fishing, and know the fishing is solid. We have some spots available for the weekend but they won’t last. Our private boat ramps give us the ability to push ahead of other floaters and put you on completely un-fished water. Yesterday (Sunday) clients and myself floated 8 miles of river and didn’t even see another boat!

May 2 Got on the river a little later today, floated Lusby to Limmer. It was quite evident from the get go the trout were going to be eating as we quickly had a dozen or so fish to the net in the first hour. Much stronger blue wing olive hatch and mixed in were some huge midges. We boated 40+ today and almost every female rainbow we caught was spawned out, so I would say for the most part the spawn is winding down. Again eggs patterns and bwo emergers were the flies of choice. Ended our day with Jack hooking into a monster trout only to have it get off, that fish was well into that 25+ inch catagory.

May 1 Had some clients today who had never fished Grey Reef before. Lets just say they are hooked. Weather cooperated nicely and the fishing in one word is just plain “silly”. We had a dozen doubles today, and hooked well over 60 trout, but our landing ratio could have been better. Lets just say the two novices to Grey Reef got schooled by a fish or two. Blue Wing Olive hatch wasn’t super strong but it was enough of a hatch to get those fish feeding heavy! We didn’t land any monsters today but just solid 18-20inch fish all day. Get here now because the fishing is crazy.

April 29 Floated 14 miles of the North Platte River today with some great clients. Although the wind was brisk and temps barely reach 45degrees the fly fishing below Grey Reef was on fire! We ended our float well below Gov. Bridge and the water clarity is great down their. Our morning consisted of landing 12-15 fish all on the spherical nymph. Then after lunch the Blue Wing Olive hatch was strong and the trout went into a feeding frenzy. We had one hole in particular where we hooked over twenty fish alone, but Eric & Craig my clients farmed over half of those fish, it was quite comical how many fish were getting off prior to landing. Craig had a streak of losing 6 fish in a row before he finally put it together and landed one! We eneded with 40+ fish day landed, most trout in the afternoon took the BWO patterns size 16. Great day on the water with some great clients and some amazing fishing!

April 27 FYI We had a trip cancel and we have 2 boats available for Sunday & Monday May 2nd & 3rd.
note: Wyoming Sage Grouse season dates are set pending the signature from the Gov. The season dates are Sept. 18-30.

April 26 Just got in from doing some night time fly fishing here on the North Platte River below Grey Reef. The moon light coupled with clear skies made it possible to fly fish all night. The first few hours of darkness were the most productive as there was a good midge hatch and the fish were rising all around us while we were wade fishing. We didn’t catch a lot of numbers but the trout we did catch were huge, we measured three fish over 23” and one female rainbow that broke 25”! Most of the fish we caught took big nymphs and crawdad patterns being dead drifted, we did manage one fish on a white streamer.

April 24 Floated the Miracle Mile section of the North Platte River today. We got a late start so missed the BWO hatch but still managed a great day of fly fishing, landed a lot of nice fish. The trout seemed to really be keyed in on scuds of various colors. Most of the spawn is over at the mile as almost all the female rainbows we caught were spawned out. Flows are up high, according to flow chart the Miracle Mile is running at 2715cfs. Water is very clear.

April 22 Water conditions for the North Platte River here at Grey Reef are clear. BWO hatch has been solid coming off by noon each day. Starting to see some fish keying in on some dry flies. Contrary to popular belief we do at times get some fantastic dry fly fishing here at Grey Reef. Conditions do have to be right though, good hatch, and some clouds help.

April 20 The weekend forcast has changed for the Grey Reef, Miracle Mile sections of the North Platte River, low to mid fifties. Blue Wing Olive mayflies are hatching abundantly and have been for some time now. It is possible with the coming cloud cover over the weekend we could see some dry fly fishing. We have some availability through the weekend for float trips.

April 19 No wind, tons of sunshine and Big trout! Took a little while to get started today but once the fish started eating it was on. Starting to catch a few post-spawn hen rainbows but not that many, I’d say the majority of the fish have not spawned yet, should be at least 2-3weeks more of spawning activity.

April 18 Fly fishing the North Platte River right now is off the hook. Just got in been on the water non-stop. I would describe the fishing right now as ridiculous, my clients have been boating between 40-50 trout a day! We hit 75 degrees here at Grey Reef Dam and no wind at all. Great BWO hatch right now, fish are eating BWO’s, eggs, midge larva, scuds, and worms.

April 15 Floated the North Platte River at the Miracle Mile yesterday and had a great day, weather was amazing. Water is real clear and running high for flows. Most of the fish we caught were on BWO’s and scuds.

April 14 Orvis Guide Rendezvous 2010 allowed me to hook up with some old fishing buds from Montana and we hit the Grey reef. Water was slightly off color, morning was a bit slow only landed maybe 12 fish or so but the afternoon was real good with a lot of nice fish being caught. We ended up landing about 35 fish all nice fat, healthy rainbows. Most of our fish came on a scud or an egg pattern.

April 13 Had a great day on the water despite the heavy winds, did a lot of wade fishing and it paid off as my guys to a 25 inch female rainbow that had a 15 inch girth, wow what a fish and what a day!! I’ll have some photos up soon.

April 11 Grey reef fishing was not quite as good today as we just had no hatch to speak of, we caught fish on a smorgess borg of flies including scuds, egg patterns, red midges, larva lace worms, BWO’s, and even some on a pmd nymph. Weather was nice and warm and made for a fine day.

April 10 Fishing below Grey Reef today was amazing and the weather was even better. My client Mike landed back to back cuttbows 23” and 24” respectively. Not a huge numbers day but a big fish day for sure. Good little BWO hatch had the fish eating RS2’s, and BWO flashbacks. We also took fish on scuds, leeches, and midges.

April 8 North Platte River Flows Grey Reef = 800cfs Miracle Mile= 1450cfs. North Platte River fly fishing right now is great, fish are spawning so be respectfull. Weekend outlook for weather is awesome temps in the upper 50’s to mid 60’s throughout. Bring on the sunshine! Fishing is great and now the weather will be also! I have open dates on April 12, 20-23, weekends are filling up but give me a call and we might be able to get you in.

April 5 Good midge hatch now, scuds, midges, egg patterns, seem to be working well. Fishing is great right now and the fish are fighting great but the weather could be better, looks like middle of the week thru the weekend is going to be warm and sunny!Hope everyones Easter was great. Nothing like hanging out with great friends over a rib-feast, thanks John & Brandy!

April 1 No doubt the fishing is picking up, try #16tan scuds – this has been the go to fly. Egg patterns are starting to work well also. Water has lost a little clarity due to the moisture received overnight but the fishing is great!

March 31 Grey Reef Anglers & Wingshooting is excited to announce its 2010 Orvis Wingshooting Guide Endorsement, thanks to Tom Evenson for all his help in the matter. We are excited to be working with Orvis and the Orvis Family for this year and years to come.

March 29 Windy and warm conditions for the next few days. We are used to fly fishing in the wind here in Wyoming. Private access and local knowledge of the river puts our clients into the best areas out of the wind and on the trout. Wade fishing is the ticket now as flows on the North Platte are very low and water clarity is great!

March 27 Hit the river early this morning despite a little snow, was a little surprised to see how clear the lower river is. The flush sure did the trick, water is as clear as I’ve seen it coming off the flush, clear all the way to town! Caught lots of fish just off the lip of the shelves on scuds, fishing was a little slow in the morning but picked up as the clouds moved out and things warmed up. Noticing a lot of spawning activity, its mostly buck males gaurding thier bowls, but reguardless looks like the spawn is starting to pick up steam.

March 26 Grey Reef Flush is over and now its back to normal flows.

March 25 Water clarity on the North Platte River is surprisingly good despite the flushing of the river this week. Where I have been down below Gov. Bridge visibility is about 2ft. & fishing was fine. Tommorrow is the last day of the flush. Other than Sat. the weather is looking great low 60’s even. Should make for some great days on the water.

March 19 Come get the big rainbows before they spawn, more often than not these next few weeks produce some of the biggest pre-spawn rainbows of the year here at Grey Reef. We have some openings starting March 27, let us know and we’ll get you in for a float trip.

March 18 A few days of nice weather here on the North Platte River has brought some good fishing here at Grey Reef, hatches are midges of several different colors, try a dark light combination of midge larva patterns as this has always been a good combination in the spring and as always the red midge larva will catch fish, fish are fighting harder as the spring spawn approaches. Fishing will do nothing but get better and better as the water temps rise.
March 11
FLUSH is March 22-26 Just got off the phone with Bureau of Rec. and they stated the flush at Grey Reef Dam downstream will be starting March 22 – 26. DON’T PUT IT IN STONE because this flush could be changed at anytime so just go fishing and if the flush takes place deal with it, or simply wait till April 1 and come then you know your in the clear!

March 8 Well the weatherman got it wrong this past weekend, but hey thats spring fly fishing here on the North Platte River. This upcoming week looks like weather here is going to be great! We have few openings for float trips at the end of March. If you’ve got the itch to get out on the water give us a call.
Weather is awesome! Fishing is picking up!
Flows=500cfs, Water is clear
Fish are still sluggish as water temps are around 38, according to my thermometer.
Spring flush supposedly is slated for 3rd week in March, but don’t quote me on it as this flush in highly dependent upon ice conditions downstream, and could happen the week after or the week before.

Please be reminded as spring approaches and Wyoming fly fisherman take to the water to be careful when wade fishing in, and around areas where fish are spawning. I’ve posted a photo above showing what a redd looks like in the water. Try to avoid walking through these areas, for reasons that are obvious. Also try to remember this spring to be curtious to other fisherman, there are fish everywhere and its quite rewarding finding fish in areas nobody else is fishing.

Feb 21 Old Man Winter has gripped the cowboy state and temps are frigid once again, hope it doesn’t last, ready for some warmth! Oh well, work on some snow goose decoys and tie some flies.

Feb 19 Getting a lot of calls for snow goose hunts, Our hunts start March 1, we have set ups in heated pit blinds, I am really excited about this year, gonna be a good one. Now we just need some nice weather and the snow geese will start showing up.
Feb 18 Lots of snow falling right now. Should have a new taxidermy page up by the end of the week, be sure to check it out, maybe a mount I did for you will be featured.
Feb 16 Lots of sunshine here, but cold mornings, afternoons have been nice though, warming into the mid 40’s. I have some openings for snow goose hunters for Wyoming & Nebraska for March, let me know what days your interested in and we’ll set you up for a great hunt.
Feb 11 Snow cover across the central flyway has snow geese held up furtheer south than could be hoped for, but they will come in due time.
Fly fishing on the Grey Reef and Miracle Mile is good. Hooking fish on a consistant basis but fish at the grey reef are a bit lathargic when hooked, contrasting that the fish at the miracle mile seem to be fighting harder. The browns at the mile are still hanging on to some nice spawning colors, especially the males.
NO ice at the mile, ice on the edges here at the “reef”. Extended forcast in the mid to upper forties for the next 10days.
Feb 8 Had some light snow here overnight, but now its sunny out, its a nice afternoon for some fly fishing the river through town here has opened up completely. So now just about every section of river is floatable. The Miracle Mile road is clear and the river has no-ice.
Feb 6 We have confirmed reports of snow geese entering the county, but just a few. It won’t be long if this warm weather holds, opener is Feb. 22

Miracle Mile Fly Fishing Report Feb 5 Went out and did some winter fly flishing of the North Platte River yesterday. Spent the day fishing the Miracle Mile section. Fishing was good considering the conditions, we wade fished the entire day, landed several nice brown trout and one big female rainbow that was obviously quite full of maturing eggs, she was fat. Ice conditions were not a factor at all, but they did turn the water flows up slightly in the afternoon and this kept us from fishing much below the bridge as a lot of weeds and junk got stirred up. A guide friend of mine ended the day with a healthy brown trout on a streamer crawdad pattern.

Feb 3 Will be at the Miracle Mile tommorrow and should have a more detailed report on how the fishing is.

Feb 1 Last week of the honker season is here, kinda glad, looking foward to the snow goose season. Got a report from a client who was fishing the miracle mile this past weekend said the fishing was really good and some really nice fish where landed. That season is almost here, get your booking in now for float trips on the Grey Reef.

Jan 26 Goose hunting remains good, although field reports show birds are extremely cautious. Some reports of snows entering the valley but can’t be confirmed yet. Honker season has less than two weeks remaining, ends Feb 8. I have openings throughout the next week and half, get in on the reverse migration as the hunting gets better. Also book your 2010 Spring Snow Goose Hunt now.
We are still doing upland bird hunting for those interested and will run our season until March 31.

Jan 23 Had groups out this weekend, birds are about as flag shy as I’ve ever seen, still managed a great shoot Sat. ended up with 9 or 10 geese and then Sun. had two man limit by 10:00. The change in weather Sunday really changed the birds cautious attitude and just was really good.
Hopefully we get another big warm up and some birds start moving north.

Jan 16,17 Still killing limits of geese daily, birds are very spread out, but are getting wiser by the day. Had a nice duck shoot to end the duck season, had a hooded merganser taken, what a beautiful bird, gonna make an amazing mount.
Jan 15 The fly fishing season is about here..have got the bug… started tying flies in between guiding goose hunters. I will start fishing reports around the first of Febuary as conditions get better for floating the river. Get your booking for your Grey Reef float trip now…oh and check out our new Grey Reef fly fishing video link on the home page.

Long time between posts…was out the last 3 days hunting geese and ducks…goose hunting remains excellent…ducks are way slow…probably due to weather…too warm. Have openings still for honker hunting if your interested. We had a 4 man limit on wednesday, great shoot, lots of birds still. If this weather keeps up could see some early snow geese arrive!

Jan 7 Have been off the hunting grounds the past couple of days, after this deep freeze looks like seasonal temps will be back for the next 10days, should spread birds out and be great hunting again.
Jan. 3 Finished up our new years weekend goose hunting today, finished 2009 with a bang as we had a 3 man limit by 10:30 which was really good considering the weather conditions, bright sunny blue sky, but we had wind and thats sometimes all you need. The goose hunting should remain good to excellent for now, the season doesn’t end until Feb 8. Get here before its over!
As a side note I have hunters booking the spring 2010 snow goose season. If you want to come out and try some snow goose hunting give me a call and get penciled in. Season opens Feb 22.

Dec 29 Geese and duck numbers remain high, I had a group out yesterday and we had our 4 man limit in less than 1 hour. We were on the X and the birds wanted in bad! That was a great shoot. Keep in touch and give me a call for the latest updates.
Dec. 20 Geese are really spreading out, had a nice hunt at the farm yesterday on geese and pheasants. Looks like the weather for the middle of this week is prime for some goose action, should be really good. I have openings for pits the 22,23,24. The hunt on the 24th will be a 1:00pm hunt day and then its home for some Christmas family fun!

Dec 15 Talk to my dad up in Billings Montana last night, he said that they are at peak numbers for ducks and geese on the Yellowstone River right now and so even though we have plenty of birds here in Wyoming, the potential for another big push of birds is likely possible with more cold weather and more snow up north as many of our birds here in Goshen County come from the Yellowstone River in Montana.
Note: Had a cancellation for Sat. Sun., wont last so if you want a prime spot give me a call.
Dec. 14 Weather has geese here spreading out, lots of fields with 50 to 100 birds but no particular mass in any one field, this warm trend should push some birds out toward the Springer/Huntley areas.
Dec 12 The 22nd Annual 2 shot goose hunt finished up today, had 5 teams with three geese, the guys I guided decided to let some birds land and in the confusion of which guy would shoot first watched the geese lift out of the decoys without firing so much as a shot. HA! Well they managed 2 geese and we had some real good laughs!!
Dec. 9 Had goose hunting groups out the last couple days, had tons of shooting as the weather finally subsided and cleared out. Despite a temp of -27 degrees yesterday we managed a good pheasant/goose shoot combo for Rob and the gang. Geese where on the move in the masses. That just might be the coldest day I’ve ever hunted but really was quite comfortable in a nicely heated pit blind. Without those heated pits not much hunting would have been done.
Dec. 8 Congrats to Jack Loveless and his bride Barbara on a successful goose/duck shoot. We got some greater Canadas in the 12lb range and even a lesser canada goose in the 6lb range. Birds are thick!
Dec 5 Difficult weather conditions today as it snowed all day on us. Had a group of three today for geese, we actually had 4 geese in the decoys upon our arrival at the pit, ended the day with 6 giant canda’s and 3 ducks 2 widgeon and 1 drake mallard all over the corn. Should have had some more geese but we had a few missed shots and 1 guide error but all in all a good hunt.

Dec 4 Congrats to 11 yr old Mitchell Greenwell of Star Valley Wyoming on his first pheasant ever! He made quite a shot too, about 45yards and moving fast. Was a treat to have father and son in the field and a nice full limit of ringnecks.

Dec. 2 Cold temps have pushed some ducks and geese further south than us here in Torrington but the big hardy geese are sticking around. Ducks are less abundant except on the North Platte river. Bird numbers on the river refuges continue to climb as ponds and lakes continue to freeze overnight. Glendo Res. has open water in Airport Bay but is locked up in Elk Horn. Hunting is excellent now.

Dec. 1 The deep-freeze is here. Geese and ducks are pouring in and flooding the skyway, it has begun!

Nov. 30 Ducks and geese are on the horizon! The numbers are increasing daily and we are expecting a blast of artic air this weekend. We have openings for duck and goose hunts as well as combo hunts, give me a call we’ll set you up!

Nov. 26 HAPPY THANKSGIVING! A special thanks to all of our service men and women who sacrafice each day for our precious freedom. I thank you from the core of my heart you are the true patriots! I want to personnaly thank my Lord and Savior for the sacrafice he made on the cross. I am most thankful for my family and friends and the huge blessing that they are to me. NOW LETS GET STUFFED, WATCH FOOTBALL, AND BRING ON THE TRIPTAFANE COMA!!!

Nov. 25 Our Torrington Wyoming pheasant hunting is heating up as corn crops start to come down. Combines thruout the Goshen county area are hard at work, looks like 50% of the corn is out. This has pushed the pheasants into the cover and is making the hunting great!

Nov. 23 Took some time today to work on pit blinds. We have light snow now and windy here in Torrington. Don’t expect any accumulation but have noticed this weather has some local ducks and geese up moving around.

Nov, 19 Need some weather up north but just clear and warm for the next 10 days. That makes for some great upland hunting weather. I had a cancellation for Sat. 21 for pheasant/sharptail Grouse hunters. If you want in let me know asap.

Nov. 16 Just finished a nice day working on my Huntley lease. I now have bubblers/aerators set up on our duck marsh to keep the water open year round. This should make for some awsome duck hunting. We also may have an option for hunting flooded corn here soon. stay tuned.

Nov 15, MIGRATION UPDATE Snow geese and Canada geese are on the move south today! Clients and myself got in on early action as geese were moving south this morning accross Goshen County. Not a mass migration but deffinately some good numbers on the move. We killed a few geese and finished our day with four hunters filling there limit of 12 rooster pheasants. Combination hunts will continue to get better as the fall progresses and more birds migrate south.
Call today and book your Duck, Goose, and Pheasant Combo-Hunt!

Nov 13 Was at the farm in Huntley today and will remain thru the weekend with the opener for geese! Had a nice hunt today on the farm with a couple clients bag limits on pheasants.
PS IF YOU WANT TO BE ON MY CALL LIST FOR WHEN THE CANADA GOOSE HUNTING GETS HOT GIVE ME A CALL AND WE’LL GET YOU IN WHEN ITS A SLAM DUNK HUNT.

Nov. 12 Was after some sharptail grouse today with a few awsome clients. Congrats to Richard Hall on his great shooting and getting his first ever sharptail and also congrats to Paul his hunting partner as they both limited out on sharpy’s by 1:30. Richard was using his Parker side by side 28 gauge and made some real nice shots.

Nov. 10 Mile fished good yesterday, had some really good streamer action on bright flashy stuff. Not much for a hatch just some midges, a few bwo’s
Some browns are in full swing on the spawning so be careful where you walk and try not to tromp through the redds!

Nov. 9 Will be at the miracle mile tommorrow and have a report on the fishing
Nov. 7 Good action today on the wild pheasant opener, hunting was good and the weather was great, dogs performed well and all togethor a great start for the season.
Nov. 4 Waterfowl Season Dates are:
Canada Geese Nov. 14 to Feb 8
Ducks Oct 31. to Jan. 17
Give me a call for availability as weekends are filling up.

Nov. 3 Better get here while the weather holds for a fall float trip on the Grey reef or Miracle Mile sections of the North Platte River. Had a guide on the Mile yesterday and those big male browns are up working the fast water getting ready for the spawn. Fishing was really good! Call us 307-267-2559

Nov. 2 MIGRATION REPORT After two days in Torrington area it looks as though there are still some birds around despite the blizzard last week. Snow geese are hanging around the area in small numbers as are Canada Geese and Some small concentrations of Mallards. I’ve got one field in particular that some geese are using regularly so if your looking for an early season goose shoot give me a call. Also have a few spots where shooting ducks is good so a combo trip would be a good choice right now!

Nov.1 What a switch in weather, was guiding down in Torrington for pheasant hunters and it was 68 degrees outside!
Call us to set up a high volume pheasant, chukar or quail shoot on our new bird farm preserve!

Oct. 31 Just wanted to thanks the First Baptist Church of Douglas for the amazing Harvest Day celebration put on in the rec center for the kids. The rides were crazy, my favorite being the one where the kid is put in a vecro suit and thrown against a velcro wall and the kid is just stuck to the wall as high as you can throw them!!!

Oct 30 Well here in Casper we didn’t quite get slammed by the snow, it is cold but only a few inches on the ground. Suppose to be beautiful this week so if your wanting to get that last minuite fly fishing trip in for some big browns give me a call!

Oct. 29 NEW! Upland Bird Hunting Preserve is now open and we have birds onsite and available for hunting. This hunt is located near Torrington, WY and is action packed as you could expect! Click here for details/NEW! Upland Bird Hunting Preserve.
Oct 25 Snowing hard right now, looks like agood couple days coming up though. Bird hunting is ramping up now and we have set up a new preserve for hunters as well as private leases for wild birds. On our preserve shoot we have chukar, pheasant and quail available. Our preserve properties include thickets, tree lines and sudan grass that is over your head. Great cover for a hunt as real as it gets! Call Jason for more details 307-267-2559

Oct. 24 Took a half day trip out to the Mile today. Spent much of my time dead drifting large streamer type patterns. Wasn’t a numbers game but did manage three brown trout all over 20inches. Caught some other small rainbows. Can’t wait to get back out there as the brown trout are really coming on strong right now!

Oct 23, Had clients in from Michigan, floated the Miracle Mile, the fly fishing was good, had several 20inch browns on leech patterns early mixed in with some smaller rainbows. All the browns we caught were male fish and where without a doubt in full spawning colors. The game and fish was shocking the river as we floated down and noticed them net some real monster browns. Fishing at the Mile should remain good to excellent as fall unfolds. Give me a call at 307-267-2559 for the latest conditions and details.

Oct. 21 Back on the Grey Reef Section of the North Platte today, morning started off strong with some early fish being hooked on #4 rainbow patterns being dead drifted. Middle of the day was a little slow but the late afternoon bite was on as the fish where keying in on midges and BWO’s. Had a lot of hook-ups but the fish of grey reef where being crafty as we lost a lot of fish after the hook-up.

Oct. 20 Had one guide on the river today he floated Bessemer to Robertson Bridge, had a single fisherman, the day started off strong with several nice fatty rainbows caught on leech patterns, middle of the day a little slow as a snow squawl rolled in but it gave way and a nice blue wing olive hatch developed leading to some great dry fly action, several break-offs and severl nice trout landed.
I on the other hand was out chasing birds with my client, got into some wild chukar to start our day off, and ended the day with some hard luck for blue grouse as we hunted in a complete blizzard. Hats off to my client for sticking it out in tough conditions!
Oct 19 Floated the Miracle Mile, fishing was good, most of the people over the weekend have cleared out and things were not busy at all, the brown shown to the right here was caught by my client Jim, and the browns are starting to move up into pre-spawn and even some spawn type water. Flows are way down and water clarity was about 2-3ft. Weeds were not much of an issue at all. Give me a call for latest conditions 307-267-2559

Oct 17. Fished the upper stretch of grey reef today, lots of floating moss to deal with, but despite the moss had a great day with my client, he actually was taken into his backing on his reel twice, both on big female rainbows, both fish were hooked up in the mouth on a scud pattern. Congrats to Jim Picardi on some fine fish. Flies working were scuds leeches of various colors.

Oct. 16 Wow today was a day to be on the water, weather could not have been better. Floated the lower river today and the fishing was good, had a small blue wing olive hatch and some small fall caddis coming off, few fish rising but didn’t go for them as they mostly seemed like small fish.
Nymphs included leeches, scuds, caddis pupa, and some BWO/emergers. North Platte River fishing below Grey Reef is fishing good. Try using leech patterns and scuds. Orange scud size 14 was the fly for today.
Streamer fishing the North Platte is crazy right now. Just rip a streamer through any obvious water and your gonna get whacked!
Flows below Grey Reef 500cfs –
Water Clarity- 2ft

Oct. 14, Warm and windy weather has crawled back into the state after the arctic blast we just had. Windy today but looks like weather will be awsome from tomorrow on.
Fishing the Miracle Mile yesterday was a little slow in the morning then heated up in the afternoon. Water clarity not near as good as was a week ago. Fish were rising in the morning so we threw streamers at em. Flows at the Mile are at 500cfs. Be advised the weeds are breaking up in the masses at the mile and the reef!!

Oct. 9, Let it snow! Well not much like fishing weather, but much like hunting weather, just finished up a duck hunt on the North Platte and it was a great shoot! Of coarse an early season bag of green wing teal, widgeon, and even a red head, oh yea and we killed some geese. Not bad two guys 7ducks, 3geese, shoulda had limits of both but hey who says you kill everything you shoot at. My migration report is as such, noticed massive movements of sandhill cranes all week and some new ducks showing up, would expect more birds to trickle in on the coattails of this storm, don’t expect massive movements, but this should bring some real good number of duck down as this air mass was a northern canadian front not a pacific front.
Ok so its gonna be darn cold this weekend but for the fisherman things should be better weather wise by mid week. Stay tuned…..

Oct 8, Cold AIR is here! Could see a significant push in Ducks headed south as this air mass is coming in from Northern Canada, I’ll keep you posted on migrational movements, call now if you want put on our Waterfowl Alert list. Basically you give us you name and number abnd we’ll call you and let you know when the birds are in and concentrated on our private leases.

Oct 6 Cold air and heavy rain/snow mix hit us the last couple of days, streamer action is really picking up. Try using a double streamer rig with some sort of white streamer as your trail fly. Was at the Mile in the cold, but landed 18 fish in 5hrs before we called it quits, fish were very aggressive on the fast strip!
BROWNS are starting to get very colorful and some slight pre-spawn activity taking place.

OCT 4, North Platte River Flows
Grey Reef – 503cfs
Miracle Mile – 500 cfs
FLUSHING FLOWS AT GREY REEF SCHEDULED FOR OCT 12-16
FLOWS WILL FLUCTUATE FROM 500cfs TO 4000cfs
FLOWS WILL BE AT PEAK EACH DAY FROM 3AM TO 7AM IN THE MORNING

Oct. 2 – Just got done with a half day float trip[ on the lower north platte river below town this morning, fishing was lights out. Started nymphing and fish where eating the crawdad patterns consistantly. Cold start but shaping up to be a nice day.

Oct 1, 2009 – Well Oct is in like a lion, we have snow, temp is about 35 degrees and wind is blowing, I suppose weather like this will turn some people off but I gotta say in my experience this sorta weather can make for some awsome hunting and fishing days. Our duck season opens sat. and I hope it’s just like this, should make for a great hunt! Call Jason today to book your next adventure 307-267-2559

It is about 9:30pm here in Casper and it is currently snowing! Should make for a fun hunt in the morning!
Sept 30, 2009
Well it may have been windy today and at times cool enough for a jacket but the dry fly fishing was awsome! Landed a dozen fish on big stonefly dries today, Barbara from New York rang in her 20th anniversary with husband Jack by going fly fishing. She was an absolute begginner but managed to catch on fast and had about 15 takes and landed 6 nice fish on the dry fly today. Water is clear and low. Took a look at the Mile today also and it is way low! Like maybe 600cfs, but they have been fluctuating it a lot lately.

Sept. 25,26,27,28,29
Spent the last five days with sage grouse hunting clients. The season was a real success, only had one ggroup not get a bomber sage grouse, that is a giant male bird(bomber). Today congrats to Jack Loveless of New York on a fine shot to bag his first sage grouse ever and what do you know it was a mounter size male. Will be out with fishing clients tomorrow and will have an update on conditions at the reef and or miracle mile. Call us for latest bird hunting and fly fishing updates 307-267-2559

Sept. 24 North Platte River at Grey Reef has cleared considerably, in Casper visibility is around 6inches, so best to stay as high as possible, Had a guide out at the Mile and came back with a mixed report, wade fishing was tuff, but the boat fishing was great! Fish still is shallow riffles eating a mix of large and small nyphs, tan scuds were said to be the fly of the day.

Sept. 22 North Platte River below Grey Reef is temporarily blown out, as of 4:46p.m Sept. 22, the river is trashed, not chocolate milk, but in my experience we are looking at a 1 to 2 day turn around and then the river will be clear again. Had a guide at the Mile today, will post a report as soon as he gets in.

Sept 22 Out with grouse hunters today, went to some new spots I haven’t hunted yet and it paid off as little Mike shot a mature grouse first thing and then as it warmed up Murph my shorthair put the big point on a nice covey and we shot the rest of our limit. Mike’s a taxidermist and went home with some great specimens.

Sept 21 Sage Grouse hunting today was a lesson on extreme weather. We started hunting the morning in an absolute blizzard, what was crazy is the hunting was great, Mike and Mike from Arizona bagged some grouse early in the storm and made for a very memorable hunt.

Sept. 20 Took a long time client of mine out today and fish the rainy cold weather, despite the cold we happened to get a lot of trout to eat hopper patterns on the post trico hatch. North Platte River will probably get blown out due to rain and snow being predicted. Stay Tuned

Sept. 19 Sage Grouse season off to a bang, congrats to Zack and father Rob Barry on a successful grouse hunt getting their limit of birds and Zack harvesting a nice male to be mounted. Was very hot today, as for my dogs and myself I will welcome the cooler weather in the days to come!
Sept. 18
Miracle Mile, Flow – 2200cfs
Gray Reef – 800cfs
Float trip today started off red hot as fish came early and often, mostly eating a leechy leech, landed several nice browns and rainbows and to end our day took a half dozen trout on hoppers. Weather is awsome and so is the fishing.

Flows: Grey Reef 801cfs, Miracle Mile 1412cfs

Sept. 15 ,2009
Went back to a part of the river I haven’t fished in a week or so and happy to report that the fish are still eating grasshoppers that are being blown into the river. Got to fish hoppers from 11:00 to the end of the day and caught some real big fish. Congrats to Jared Lowry and his 24inch brown trout on a dry fly yesterday! These fish have been eating hoppers for almost 2 months now and it really shows in the length and weight, they just keep getting bigger and harder fighting, we broke off several fish yesterday on 2X tippet!

Sage Grouse season opens this Sat. 19th. I have two openings left, they are the 20th, and the 24th. Give us a call 307-267-2559 for details.

Sept 11, 2009
Fishing is good, dries, and streamers in the morning and evening is producing. Pay close attention to the edges of the river and notice the fish rising. I Noticed several floaters completely float past rising fish that where apparently to sneaky to be noticed by the floaters. Amazing!
A shout out to Gun Dogs R Us, and a special thanks to Rick for his dilegence in training my hunting dog “Murph”. Rick runs a top notch operation and I would reccomend him for training your dog or as a source to buy a fully trained dog. You can reach Rick & Kathy at ACC Ranch & Kennels 719-650-8291 or at www.gundogsrus.com

Sept. 10, 2009
Spent the last two mornings scouting for sage grouse and then fishing the afternoons. The weather is awesome, no wind, high’s around 80, just super pleasant days we are having heading into our fall season. Gotta love Wyoming in the fall, hunting, fly fishing, all good times.
Have two slots left for sage grouse season, call for available dates. 307-267-2559

Date: Sept, 8, 2009
Location: Grey Reef section of the North Platte River
Flows: 1001 cfs
Visibility: very clear
Trip: Just wade fished this morning for a few hours, water clarity is awesome, I’ve never seen water this clear in September, its not quite as clear as the spring but very close. Streamers were great, being presented slow and on the bottom. If I was going to schedule a trip I would do it now, before the supposed fall flush.

As of Sept. 8, I currently have two openings for sage grouse hunts. Call for exact dates as this is a short season, the last day being Sept.30th

Date: August 29, 2009
Location: Miracle Mile – Wyoming
Flows: 2500cfs and variable
Float Trip: Started our float trip by fishing a few holes out of the drift boat and right away the trout where eating! Caught several nice rainbows on red/orange bighorn worm patterns, and soft hackle caddis flies. Ended are day with some nice brown trout on streamers. Fly fishing streamers will only get better as the fall season unfolds, guided float trips will give you the best chance to land one of these monster brown trout, I’ll keep you posted as to when it really picks up.
Sage Grouse hunting season is almost here- Opener is Sept. 19. I have two openings left so if your interested in an authentic western bird hunt keep us in mind. For lodging and details call 307-267-2559